The Real World
by crazytomboy78
Summary: Manny and Frida are in for a rude awakening to the real world when Frida realizes that she is pregnant with Manny's child after dating four 6 years. What will become of them in 9 months? Rated T for sexual content and alcohol.
1. Party

**IDEA EXPLOSION! Woooooot. I am loving this idea, it's gonna be so cute (after a little awkwardness) rated T for sexual content/alcohol.**

"This party is going to be so epic!" a 19-year-old Frida celebrated as they walked further down the street, smiling excitedly.

"Yeah! I heard that the guys they got to play opened for some band in a concert once!" Manny exclaimed. They found the house and before entering, exchanged excited glances. Manny opened the door for Frida, (of course, he being a manners man allowed ladies first) and walked in after her. Music was blasting; people were dancing and holding cups of some drink they didn't care about enough to identify what it was. A guy around the same age as them approached them with two cups, handing them to the young couple with an amused smile on his face.

"Have some beer! There's food in the kitchen!" Manny and Frida shrugged and took the beer, knowing they were walking home anyways. Manny took a sip after hesitating a moment; he couldn't remember the conversation he'd had with his father about proper alcohol usage on his eighteenth birthday last year, so he decided to enjoy the party. As they sipped more alcohol, they got into the swing of the party more. The music got louder as they refilled each time, and the more people they partied with the more they felt like escaping to their own little world. The more drunk kids they encountered, the closer to the stairs they became. In a matter of hours, Manny was grabbing her hand, smiles on both their faces, leading her to the nearest room.

~…~

"Ugh, what a night." Frida arose from the area she fell asleep (passed out) in and looked around.

"Wait…this isn't my room." She saw Manny sleeping beside her and noticed that they were still at the house the party was at.

"HOLY CRAP MANNY WE HAVE TO GO!" Frida realized where she was and awoke Manny with a startle. Manny looked around as they scrambled to find their clothes and crawl out the back window. Escaping down the street, they slowed to a stop and walked the rest of the way home. (of course it was awkward.)

"S-so…uhh…I…" Manny couldn't find the right thing to say.

"I, uhh, my dad's gonna be wondering where I was, I should get home…I'll, uhh, see you later Manny." She gave him a quick kiss and turned the corner to go home. Manny sighed and continued on his way home as well. As Frida found her house, she hesitated before opening the door and attempting to sneak into her room. Attempting meaning before she could set foot on the floor at the top of the stairs, her mother stopped her with an angered look on her face.

"Frida Sachita Suarez, where in the world have you been?" Carmela demanded. Frida nervously rubbed her arm, not knowing what to say.

"Uhh, umm…overnight studies at the library?" Carmela frowned.

"Where were you?" She asked once more. Frida sighed.

"Okay, so maybe I went to Manny's and accidentally fell asleep." Frida lied some more. Carmela sighed; she would believe the white lie for now, but she'd expect the truth out of her daughter sometime.

"Frida, did you…do anything?" Carmela asked. Frida's eyes widened and a blush crept up on her face.

"Mom! No way, that's so gross!" Frida acted disgusted; part of the act was actual disgust, but a small amount. More shock contributed.

"Well I'm just being sure. You two have been dating a long time now, and I figured that the more time you two spent together the closer to…it…you'd become. You can never be too careful," Carmela secretly handed over a home pregnancy test to Frida and Frida, knowing that she might need it, took it and went to her room to take a shower.

~…~

"Manuel Pablo Gutierrez O'Brien Equihua Rivera, where have you been?" Rodolfo demanded as Manny walked in the door. Manny began to panic.

"I, uhh, I…I, went to a…a party, yeah, it was a YAY FOR ALCOHOL-FREE TEENAGERS! Party! Yeah, and I fell asleep when we were playing Monopoly on the couch…sorry." Manny lied as he went along. Rodolfo sighed; by now he had learned to take Manny's white lies and deal with them and let him pretend he believed him until he admitted to his lies and apologized, then ground him. He'd learned by now that Manny took the slow road sometimes learning the right thing to do. He'd always come around, but for some reason this time it seemed different; but if Manny was going to be Manny then he would wait until his son was ready to tell him.

"If you say so, mi'jo…" Rodolfo sighed. Manny escaped to his room to freshen up and take a nap. He had a large headache from all the alcohol from the previous night. He wondered how Frida was right now, if she felt hung over or sick right now. He wondered what would become of them now that they had gotten intimate. Would she have a hard time speaking to him? Or maybe vice versa? If he thought he had a hard time speaking to her after she'd kissed him when they were thirteen, he knew he'd need to break the ice once more. What he really hoped is that this wouldn't bind their futures with little feet.

~…~

As the week passed, Frida felt a pattern in how she felt as she awoke in the morning. Sometimes waking up meant it was three and the morning and she ran to the bathroom to barf, or it meant waking up to her alarm feeling like she was going to barf but never came close to it. It also included the eventual headache or feeling like she was going to die. Of course, going to her college classes each morning with a massive headache and coming to Manny after said class and hearing him say "are you okay, mi amor?" didn't help the case much. Her family noticed this each morning, and asked the same question, but always got the same response: "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about it." Once it became a morning ritual, Frida was becoming suspicious. She decided to take advantage of her unusual sickness that oddly lasted only till the last hours of morning each day to skip a Friday. Her parents feeling bad for their youngest daughter but knowing she could take care of herself while they all went to work helped her case.

Once everyone was gone, Frida rose from her bed and walked to the bathroom, filled with nervousness. She opened the medicine cabinet that was disguised as a mirror and reached into the back of it and pulled out the pregnancy test her mother had handed her earlier in the week and closed the bathroom door. With the flush of the toilet a few minutes later, Frida slowly brought the tiny stick-shaped test into her view and read the plus sign printed on the screen. She felt tears come to her eyes as she dropped the test to the floor and ran to the comfort of her bed.

As Frida watched the clock with dreaded fear, watching the minutes tick closer to 2:30, she grew more scared and more nervous. She watched the seconds tick by slowly and the clock could not have moved any slower for her. She saw the clock strike 2:23, knowing the bell that released the students from their prison-classrooms would ring in a matter of minutes. Not a huge surprise to anyone, really, Frida saw Manny walk out the front doors to the school. Frida rushed over to him, snapping her fingers nervously.

"Manny, we need to talk." Frida said. Manny felt scared, as he knew what that meant for most girls.

"Uhh, yeah, sure, what's up?" Manny asked, trying not to show his nervousness in his tone. Her silence was full of nervousness and thinking of what to say next. She took Manny aside and led him outside the school grounds to a secret place where they could only hear it.

"Manny, I'm…" Frida couldn't bring herself to say it, "I'm pregnant." The silence between them was unbearable. Manny didn't know what to say. There was no way this was good. They were still young and in college, this couldn't be happening to them.

"What? No, this is really bad. This can't be happening, not to us…" Manny panicked.

"Well it is. This is serious, Manny, this is really bad." Manny thought about it more. They're writing their futures out in pen; he had begun to think of who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and he knew he wouldn't like to be separated from Frida and he knew that's who he belonged with, so he had contemplated proposing to her and as the thought grew the more he was tempted to skip school with her to buy a ring and give it to her right there, right then. But the fear of rejection got to him each time and he rejected the idea temporarily.

Manny thought more. He thought of having a little boy running around his house. It didn't seem too upsetting the more he thought about it; and the more he thought about it the more it grew on him.

"Actually, this is great! I mean, think of it Frida. I love you, and this means I will have a son to continue the Rivera bloodline, and the Rivera name!" Manny saw she was not smiling.

"Frida, I don't want to loose you. I was starting to figure that we'd end up together a long long time anyways. So what if we're young? We're a family and that's what counts."

"The MONEY, Manny, your dad and grandpapi aren't exactly full of money...how can we afford this baby? Once my dad finds out-crap, my dad is going to flip!" Frida felt panicked.

"Frida, I'll be there for you no matter what happens. It'll be okay, I promise."

"But we'll need to get, like, two jobs each!" Frida complained. Manny hugged her in comfort.

"I promise, Frida, this will work out no matter how hard I have to make it work." They remained on the street corner in a tight hug.

**Well, that's cute so far. If it's kinda sketchy on details in a few places, I apologize. I finished this over the course of a few hours each day for like a few days, and I copy pasted the last part from my email because I wrote it down on my phone. So review!**


	2. Confrontation

"Frida, you can't keep avoiding your family like this. You have to tell them sometime, you know. They'll wonder why you got so fat." Manny poked her shoulder. Frida sighed.

"Well how can I? They'd flip! And besides, you haven't even told your family yet. You're in no position to accuse me." Frida complained. She leaned back on the park bench they were resting on during their walk through the park and crossed her legs.

"Fine. I'll make you a deal. When you tell your family, I'll tell mine. Ok?" Manny held out his hand to her in a business-like gesture. Frida frowned, but shook his hand anyways.

"Deal." Although he sounded serious, in her mind she was keeping her voice from quivering with nervousness. Telling her parents would be torturous, nonetheless her sisters. They'd just taunt her like there's no tomorrow and give her a hard time every chance they got. She would be digging herself a hole deeper and deeper with just two words: I'm pregnant.

Manny smiled and put his arm around her shoulder as he looked around and observed the beautiful, sunny day.

~…~

"Mom, dad are you home?" Frida asked into her house. Her parents called from the kitchen and living room. Manny followed Frida to her living room. Emiliano tried to ignore the disturbance in his home that was the Rivera his daughter was infatuated with and continued reading the newspaper.

"What's the matter, mi'ja?" Carmela asked as she came to the living room.

"Uhh, can you both sit down? There's something important I need to tell you." Carmela, now looking concerned, sat on the armrest of the chair Emiliano was sitting on. Frida then had their full attention (observing that Emiliano put down the newspaper and gave his attention to her).

"I...I don't know how else to say this, so I'll just come right out with it," Manny grasped Frida's hand and wrapped his free hand around her as she spoke,

"I'm pregnant." Emiliano immediately shot up from his chair, anger quickly fuming through his body.

"You are WHAT?" He yelled, extremely angered; of course, thus attracting the attention of Frida's 21-year-old (home from college on summer break) sisters, Anita and Nikita.

"What's up with Frida now?" They asked interchangeably.

"How did this happen, mi'ja?" Carmela asked, only to be interrupted by Emiliano.

"I forbid you to see this boy!" He screamed. Frida felt angry at the demand.

"NO, dad! You can't keep babying me like that, I'm a grown woman and I know what I want! I love Manny, he loves me, and we're going to be a family! And if you can't accept that, then I'm moving out!" Frida yelled. Everyone was silenced by Frida's statement. Emiliano was taken aback by it. Manny wanted to smile, but refrained knowing it was not the time, nor the place.

"I cannot accept this. You are still a child." Emiliano was quieter with his tone this time.

"Then I can't live under your roof anymore. I'm sorry, dad, but I know now that I want this baby to happen. I don't care if you won't help support us financially, we'll get jobs. We don't need your support." Frida (and Manny following) stormed out.

"Ugh, why can't he just accept our relationship?" Frida complained.

"Forget him, Frida, all we need is each other." Manny comforted. Frida hugged him as he hugged her.

"I can't, Manny, he's my dad. I mean, I know he's been tough on our relationship ever since I met you but when a woman has a baby she always wants two people by her side: the father and the grandfather. And my dad hates me now." Frida looked away to try to hide her tears. Manny wrapped his arms around her waste and left his hand over her belly. It wasn't large yet, but he knew soon it would be. Frida placed her hand over his and dropped her head onto his shoulder.

"Frida, this is our baby and this is our life. If your dad doesn't care, then I know my dad and grandpapi do and that's more than enough for me. So what if your dad doesn't like me? We're in love and if he can't see that then he doesn't need to be in this baby's life." Manny tried to comfort her, but it wasn't working quite yet.

"Frida, my family is your family. My dad is your dad, and my mom is your mom. And it's not like you don't have your mom by your side, she understands a lot when it comes to our relationship." Manny said. Frida was silent for a moment, then nodded. Manny wiped away her tears with his thumb and hugged her tighter. They still felt alone in the world, but knowing that Manny's family was always on their side was reassuring and having that feeling was a huge stress relief (for the moment, at least) and it relaxed them a bit.

After finishing a calm walk in the park, Manny and Frida walked back to Maria's house—it was Friday, and that counted as the weekend so he spent it at his mother's house—Manny was sure that his mother would comfort them at least a little about the situation as she always had when Manny had a problem that he didn't want to go to his father about just yet. And this was definitely something he didn't quite feel like getting yelled at by his father about just yet. (Which meant maybe later he'd build a bit of courage to help swallow his fear and come out with it.)

"Hello, mi'jo, Frida, how was your day?" Maria greeted as she came out from the kitchen with a plate of cookies fresh from the oven. Manny, having an epic sweet tooth, dove right in. Frida still felt scared and unlike Manny, sweets didn't caress her deep fears and worries as they did with the problems she'd had when she was younger. She held back from indulging with her boyfriend. This of course, bringing Maria to realize something was wrong.

"Frida, mi'ja, is something wrong?" Maria asked softly. She'd begun calling Frida 'mi'ja' after she'd been around Manny long enough for everyone to realize there was no separating those two, no matter what happened to them. Frida snapped her fingers nervously before she decided to take Maria and sit down to explain that she was having her son's baby and that her parents did not approve of this and were mad at her, and the whole sherad

"It may just take a bit more time for your parents to adjust to this, mi'ja, it is a pretty big shock to them. They've raised you and your sisters with such strict indifference that they are not used to such rebellion. Give them time to adjust." Maria comforted.

"But that's just the thing, my dad has never approved of us! He's always off taunting Manny, even when I told him Manny and I were dating now he flipped on us. He's never liked anything I did with Manny!" Frida complained. Maria placed a hand on Frida's shoulder. It felt comforting, like the hand of her own mother rubbing across the back. It felt warm and welcoming. Manny's family has always felt that way to her-like her own second family.

"Frida, your father just doesn't like to accept the fact that his baby girl is growing up. It's hard for any father to accept that his baby is growing up." Maria explained. Frida looked down. She sighed, accepted what she was being told.

"Thank you." Frida was silent for a moment as nobody moved from their seats. Frida thought it was odd how silent Manny was being, but then she glanced at him to see that he was still gorging on cookies. She smiled and rolled her eyes at him.

"But, for now…I just can't be around my family. Manny, can I stay with you?" Frida asked. Manny stopped mid-bite and stared at her a moment; cookie still protruding from his mouth.

"Opf course, phFrida, you're awphways wephcome at mffy house." Manny answered with his mouth full. He swallowed his bite and glanced towards his mother.

"If that's alright with my mother and father, of course." Manny added. Maria smiled.

"It's always okay with me." Frida smiled and hugged Maria. That's what she liked about Manny's mother; she always made people feel better.

~…~

Manny and Frida walked through the front door of Manny's house to find that Rodolfo was going through the usual routine: reading some book to make himself look classy before he began to scrape something together for dinner. Manny rolled his eyes as he clasped Frida's hand.

"Dad, I need to talk to you and Grandpapi. It's important." Rodolfo set aside his book to see the seriousness in his son's eyes. He looked beside Manny to see Frida looked intensely scared; with that he knew it was serious. Rodolfo screamed into the hallway for his own father and walked back into the living room.

"What, what, what do you want?" Grandpapi complained. He saw Manny and Frida and stayed to listen. Observing that his dad and grandpapi had his full attention, Manny felt a frost of nervousness overcome him.

"U-uhh, Frida is…well, she's…we're, umm…" Manny tried to find the most subtle way to break it to his family.

"…expecting." Frida finished for him. She could tell it was not something he was very good at; not like she was any better, though. The room was silent for a moment before Rodolfo stood. Manny swallowed. He had a feeling that was to come next would not be pleasant. Rodolfo walked around the couch in silence, only the sound of his pants swishing filling the room faintly.

"I suppose you suspect me to yell at you, son…" Rodolfo said calmly. Manny nodded nervously. Rodolfo observed the motion.

"But I am not. I have thought many times of what will become of you in the future, and…" Manny was curious, and she showed It in his gaze.

"This is so exciting!" Rodolfo squealed. Grandpapi rolled his eyes at his son's giddiness. Manny smiled in relief. Frida still felt scared, but having the approval of Rodolfo made her feel a little better.

"Really?"

"Of course! My son is not the last Rivera anymore! I will now be a grandfather! This is grand!" Rodolfo exclaimed.

"Yeah, dad, but what are we going to do about money?" Manny asked, "We aren't exactly loaded with money." Manny complained. Rodolfo patted the seat next to him on the couch. Frida and Manny sat.

"We will do anything we can to support you, mi'jo."

**wow, there's a lot of soft stuff for two chapters. It'll get kinda drama-packed later on, when I find stuff to fill the story with. review?**


	3. Task One: Finding a Job

Sitting in Manny's room conversing about what they should do for the hour they had before a doctor's appointment with Frida's doctor to determine whether she was really pregnant or not, Manny sighed.

"I have no idea what we can do." He gave up. Normally, he would've come up with an easy solution but due to the stress he couldn't think straight. The doctor would confirm it and the stress would build and build until it crushed them miserably. Not only would knowing that they would have to get two jobs to support a baby and get everything a baby would need to grow properly, but after it was born Manny would have to have four jobs while Frida stayed home and took care of the baby and they would be up all night taking care of it. But, they would be a family with the woman he loved and the baby they love.

"Maybe we should go to the arcade or something." Frida suggested. It wasn't the first thing she wanted to do, but she noticed Manny's stress and didn't want to push it with him by saying they should go on a romantic date or something upon those lines for an hour then go to the doctor's appointment together like a real family; even though they weren't married and they weren't entirely, 100 percent sure that she really is pregnant; but still, the thought is what counted with her.

"I guess so, if you want to." Manny said calmly. Frida stood and followed Manny out of his room. Rodolfo sighed as he saw his son followed by his son's girlfriend. He thought of how quick nineteen years had gone by and watched how Frida followed him passionately. It had seemed like just yesterday Manny was ten years old and begging for superpowers of his own; it seemed like just last week his baby boy was telling him all about his new friend Frida; now they were grown up and they were going to have a baby together. Where had their lives gone?

As they faced the fresh spring air when the door to the stack of apartments below Manny's house, Frida began to think about having a baby. She thought of the money, the space, and the stuff that they would need just to keep the baby. She thought of how much she and Manny had grown together throughout their lives and how they had encountered every twist and turn together on the path of life; he had never left her side, no matter what she'd done. Heck, if surprise kissing a best friend as your first kiss and still calling her your best friend wasn't true friendship, she didn't know what is. If saying that you're pregnant and having your boyfriend still stay by your side wasn't showing how much they were in love, she didn't know what would.

"Manny, where is the baby going to stay?" Frida asked after they'd been silent for the walk over to the arcade so far. Manny stopped walking. He was silent for a moment longer as he thought. Then he shrugged.

"I don't know, my house?" Manny continued walking. Frida crossed her arms and followed him.

"Manny, you really want our baby to stay at _your house_?" Frida asked.

"Why not? I turned out fine and I've been there all my life."

"Manny, we need a house of our own or we'll be tied down to your house the rest of our lives. We need to get jobs and put money aside for a house of our own," Frida corrected the error of her boyfriend's words. Manny sighed.

"I know, my house sucks, and we need our own house. We can apply for jobs tomorrow." Manny said honestly.

"No, now." Frida scolded. Manny stopped walking and sighed. Then he smiled as an idea popped in his head.

"Hey, I could work at the arcade!" Manny said excitedly.

"Manny, do you really want to work with a bunch of bratty little kids all day that whine to you about stuff that no one gives a crap about?" Frida asked, hands on her hips; she was trying not to smile. Manny dropped his shoulders from their upright, happy position and sighed.

"No." They kept walking to find good places to work. They walked past several restaurants and got applications, several convenience stores, a movie theater and a few other places. Manny sighed at all the paperwork they would now have to do. _It would sure make up for all that work that I didn't do when I was in school, _Manny thought. He'd never bargained for this much work in his life, but then again, he never asked for a baby at nineteen so it was only what he had coming to him.

"Ugh, this is more work than I've done in my life." Frida complained. That's what Manny liked about her; she always knew what he was thinking while making it look like she had no idea that he'd been thinking the same thing. It was like they shared the same brain, like at one point in their life they were Siamese twins that were joined at the head and had connecting brains, but when they were separated their intellectual level was divided in half due to the fact that they were divided into two. But that was only a fantasy, a mere simile to compare their likenesses. Clever for a girl that got nothing out of school basically her whole life.

"I know. I have no idea how I'm going to survive all this paperwork without having a hand amputated." Manny complained. Frida checked the time from her phone.

"Well hey, I have to go to the doctor's now so I'll see you after," Frida pecked Manny quickly, "bye." Frida walked off to meet her mother at the doctor's office. Manny walked back to his house to start the dreadful pile of work applications that he would fill out with the assistance of his father on the things he didn't know (which, by the looks of it, would be a lot).

By the stressed look on Manny's face when he walked through the front door, Rodolfo could tell that the pile of papers in his son's hand was something foreign to him. Also that it was something he didn't want to do.

"What is all that, mi'jo?" asked Rodolfo. Manny plopped himself on the couch and started to look at the papers with misery.

"Job applications." Manny intended a complaint.

"That is wise, my son." Rodolfo complimented.

"But it's so hard!" Manny whined.

"Then why are you applying for so many jobs?" Rodolfo asked. Manny put down his pen, leaned back on the couch and sighed deeply.

"Because the love of my life is pregnant." Manny said. He dropped his head onto the top of the couch and stared at the ceiling. It wasn't a miserable thing, it was connecting him to his true love and that's what he wanted for them sometime in their lives; it was just that he hadn't expected it so soon.

"Well if you love her, it will not be miserable." Rodolfo set down his book onto the side table resting by his chair.

"I know, and I do. But if I think about it I just get so stressed. A baby is going to be so much work, and who knows what toll it will take on our relationship. Stress could make us so mad. And we're only dating." Manny complained. Rodolfo sighed.

"Then why don't you marry her?" Rodolfo asked. If Manny had been eating something, he would have choked on it as he tried to spit it out.

"Woah, get married? Aren't you supposed to be like, thirty for that?" Manny asked. Rodolfo rolled his eyes at Manny's ignorance. For being grown up, there were things about his son that still hadn't changed.

"Mi'jo, you get married when you know that you love a woman and you couldn't imagine her with anyone else." Manny thought for a moment.

"But if I'm nervous about having a baby, how in the world do you think I'll have the courage to ask her to MARRY me?" Manny complained.

"Manny, the words just come to you when you say the first word. It's a natural process when it comes to proposing to your true love." Rodolfo's words sank into Manny's brain and Manny thought about it.

"I don't know, maybe we're not ready for marriage yet." Manny knew he was flat out lying to himself, but he was highly nervous about asking a person he'd known all his life to marry him.

"But you are ready to have a baby. Surely you are ready for marriage." Manny sighed.

"But that's the thing, we weren't ready."

~…~

Frida walked into Manny's house as if it were her own; technically, she was living here until she could deal with her parents; that is, if she ever was able to move back in that house. She doubted it would be for a while. She saw Rodolfo sitting on his chair as he read his romantic novel as it was his 'classy hour'. She looked over to see Grandpapi silently cheering on his favorite sports team as to respect Manny while he finished off the last of the applications. Frida sat by Manny's side and rubbed his back with a single hand. Manny acknowledged her presence with a "Hey, how'd it go?" without looking up from the perplexing paperwork.

"Well, but not so good. My mom met me there, but my dad didn't because he's still really really mad. And it was awkward with my mom because we couldn't say anything to each other. Then the doctor said that I'm definitely having a baby." Frida explained. Manny calmly placed the pen atop the paper and smiled at Frida.

"That's wonderful, actually." Frida smiled as she saw the sincerity in Manny's eyes. He really did want to be with her and this child that they were creating, and that was the most beautiful thing in the world to her. Manny continued his paperwork and Frida sat by Manny and watched the game with Grandpapi calmly waiting for Manny to finish so they could go out for dinner as they had planned yesterday. Manny thought more about what his father had told him. He wanted to, he had thought about it countless times no matter what he was doing. College work, pranking people, scratching his butt, eating food; anything he did reminded him of his future with his blue-haired lover.

After Manny resisted falsely answering his questionnaire with amusing answers, he set aside the papers and the pen and smiled at Frida for a moment. He stood, held out his hand to her and stood. He helped her up—in an effort to get used to it because he knew that soon he'd be doing that a lot—and grabbed their coats. He handed Frida hers and started to put his on.

"We'll be back later, dad," Manny said. Before he opened the door and closed it behind him, he remembered something he'd wanted to ask.

"Oh, dad, while you're both here, there's something important I need to ask you," Manny leaned against the wall, "can Frida live here?" Manny asked.

"Frida is always welcome here," Rodolfo smiled towards Manny, "she is practically family." Rodolfo answered. Manny gave his father a look that said 'don't say anything!' and Rodolfo giggled to himself. Manny followed Frida out the front door, observing the smile on Frida's face upon his father's answer. She looked happy to be staying at such a place like his, because it wasn't much. He grasped her hand as they exited the building.

"Manny, can we go get my stuff from my house after dinner?" Frida asked.

"Yeah, sure." Manny said.

"Oh, but can we sneak in my window? I don't want to confront my family just yet." Frida asked.

"Sure, anything you want, Frida." Manny wrapped his arm around her back and they continued their way to the restaurant.

Once inside the restaurant, Frida followed Manny to the hostess' stand. Manny explained that he needed a table for two, asking politely of course, and the hostess explained that it would be about ten to fifteen minutes before a table is ready for them. Manny accepted it and they found a seat in the waiting area, allowing a space for Frida to sit down first, and they began to talk about the places Manny wanted to work at out of the ones he'd applied for. Manny explained that he had high hopes for working at a place with a good pay, decent work hours and decent job description.

After the ten to fifteen minutes had passed, the hostess announced that their table was ready and Manny and Frida followed the waiter to their table for two. They sat and the waiter explained his name, the restaurant's specials of the day and left them to decide what they wanted to order. They had been handed a wine list, but ignored it due to the fact that because it had gotten his girlfriend pregnant, Manny was taking distaste and fear to it and because Frida was pregnant she couldn't have it even if she waned—which she didn't. Alcohol put the fear into them now. Besides, someone needed to be sober so they could get home safe (even though they had walked to the restaurant).

An hour and a half passed, and the two were finally done with dinner. Manny paid for the bill knowing that it would be the last time he'd get to spend money for a while and escorted Frida out so they could stop by her house and get everything she needed to stay with him for the next couple months. Before taking off, Manny placed his hands on his silver belt buckle with the letter 'T' engraved on it and spun it. Soon following the spinning of the belt buckle, he was engulfed in green flame that transformed him into his might superhero alter-ego, El Tigre. A roar and a mighty bellow of "El Tigre!" found its way out of his mouth, indicating that the transformation from normal nineteen-year-old boy to super-strong superhero with tiger-based powers.

Manny swooped Frida up into his arms as he swung past downtown buildings, looking carefully for Frida's house. Frida watched the ground float away from her feet suddenly as Manny took her to her room. Never in her life had she thought that she'd be able to say that her boyfriend would literally sweep her off her feet. (Well, she had, but she just didn't suspect it to be so literal.) She watched buildings fly by them and felt comforted by Manny's furry paw-hand wrapped around her waist. She didn't want to get fat now, she had maintained her hour-glass figure for so long; and now it would be wasted, gone. Not that she ever really cared for looking fabulously beautiful 24 hours a day, but being pretty in front of Manny mattered to her.

Manny came to Frida's bedroom window and set her down in her room. Manny stayed crouched on Frida's windowsill as he watched her fish a suitcase out of the back of her closet and fill it with her clothes. He watched Frida disappear into her bathroom to retrieve her toiletries. Manny wondered if Frida's family had heard anything out of them, but decided not to worry about it and watched Frida pack more.

"You know, you could help me a little." Frida insisted. Manny smiled sheepishly and leapt into her room and started to help her pack. He picked something from Frida's open drawer and studied it in an effort to determine what it was. Frida turned to see Manny studying her panties and blushed as she yanked it from his claws and folded it into her suitcase. Manny blushed and went to retrieve Frida's hairbrush and shampoos from the bathroom as she asked.

In the silence that was now Frida's room, Frida heard her door creak open. She looked up to see Carmela standing in her doorway. Frida set down her shirt and turned to her mother. No one said anything for a moment, then Frida spoke up as she couldn't bear silence between two people.

"Here to rub it in my face about 'you told me so'?" Frida said, annoyed. Carmela sighed and leaned against the doorframe.

"No, mi'ja. I just want you to come home and straighten things out with your father." Carmela insisted. Frida crossed her arms and watched out of the corner of her eye as Manny walked out from the bathroom with the things she had asked for and saw as he stopped and watched the confrontation awkwardly. Frida walked over to him and took her brush and shampoos and set them in her suitcase.

"I don't want to straighten things out if dad can't accept that I love Manny and he loves me back. And I don't want to come home. Manny and I are going to work for a down payment on a house, and if you don't want to be in my baby's life then fine, don't be." Frida said. She zipped her suitcase and stood by the windowsill, Manny standing beside her. Frida stared at her mother angrily, a rock hard expression on her face. Carmela held her daughter's stare.

"Take us home now, Manny," Frida said, not breaking her stare. Manny grasped a nearby tree with his grappling-claw, and after pausing a moment, swept Frida out of her room and they went home. The journey home was quiet between the two, as Manny didn't want to upset Frida more. The way home was short as well, and as soon as they reached Manny's front door Manny took Frida to her new room to unpack her things.

"Ugh, the nerve of them! They think that just because I'm in my room they can get all over me and ask me to come home. Maybe I don't want to! Maybe I can't live with the fact that my father can't approve of the guy who gave him their first grandchild. I mean, not even my sisters have a steady boyfriend yet!" Frida ranted. Manny helped her by unpacking some of her clothes.

"Frida, he _is _your dad. Believe it or not, he does care about you. It just so happens that that requires hating me with a fiery passion." Manny said calmly, putting Frida's clothes into her drawer.

"But I don't want him to hate you! He knows how much you've done for this town, and he knows how much I care for you, so why doesn't he like you?" Frida complained.

"Frida, come on. I don't need to be liked by your dad to know that my life is perfect with you in it." Manny pecked Frida on the cheek and continued unpacking Frida's things.

"Touching, Manny, really, but it's never easy for a woman to grow up knowing that her family doesn't agree with each other." Frida explained.

"Aw, he'll come to his senses sometime. For now, let's finish setting up your room.

**Whoo! Long chapter. Long chapters are fun. Imma go ahead and map out the rest of this story now, so, review!**


	4. Task Two: Parents' Acceptance

Manny could not bear waiting. Every time he tried to wait for something exciting, he got too eager. Patience may be a virtue, but it wasn't his. He had never been able to be patient for anything in his life. When he was a kid, he'd begged his father for superpowers of his own almost every day. Upon waiting for birthdays, he was found snooping around every nook and cranny that ever existed in his house. Christmas nearly put him in a stray jacket each year. Manny had never been able to be patient for anything in his life, let alone waiting for the right moment to propose to his pregnant girlfriend. He couldn't even wait to see her later, that's how impatient he was.

The only reason they weren't together right now was due to the fact that she was still going through the morning sickness stage, Frida had requested not to be bothered in the morning and if they heard anything that sounded like barfing, to disregard it. Manny didn't do much with his unoccupied mornings anyways. Woke up at noon, scratched his butt and went to the kitchen to eat his breakfast. Then, of course, go to work. But he had the day off today, so he could afford to be lazy in exchange for six other days of the week when he had to work. Manny heard footsteps going from the bathroom to the spare bedroom they had given Frida and knew that maybe she'd be in for some breakfast soon. He learned that with her morning sickness came a sort of regularity. Regularity being she moaned in complaint of having a stomachache for a little over an hour, threw up for the rest of said hour, then shuffled herself into the kitchen with a big bead head and silently and grumpily ate hear breakfast beside Manny, muttering 'damn baby' as she plopped herself onto the kitchen counter bar stool.

This hour of day, of course, being the time where Frida grumpily ate her breakfast consisting of whatever cereal was sitting on the counter. Manny didn't bother her at this time, because she was grumpy from being sick all morning and was going through mood swings. Of course, she wasn't sick every morning. Some morning she woke up same as Manny: tired and lazy. It was one of the things they had in common: they were _not _morning people. Sometimes they didn't even get up for school. But, that was back in high school and now they had bigger responsibilities to take on.

Of course, today was Sunday and that meant it was time for Manny to get another dose of his college life. He took an online course ever Sunday, and had a class at the community college every Monday and Wednesday. He was only interested in minor jobs like salesman or businessman as his father had been. Just a job that pays the bills. He wanted a simple job, a job that he could relate to. A job that Manny Rivera could do. A job that not only he could do, but he could get good pay for. That was all he asked. He wished for at least a semi-normal life, something that would satisfy him when he wasn't being thrilled by the rush of being a super hero. Thrill on one side, satisfying life on the other. It would be good all around.

Manny, upon cleaning up his bowl, went to his room to start his class work; on his way out of the kitchen, patting Frida's shoulder as he walked past her. Frida acknowledged the motion with a nod of the head and a mouthful of cereal. Manny smirked at her girlish grace. His inability to be patient about anything found its way back into his mind as he touched her shoulder and kissed her cheek, which reminded him of how much he loved her. He would have to make a note of that next time she was grumpy and irritating. And sometimes, that happened when she was bored and he was doing school work. Of course, he knew it was just because of her mood swings but he knew her intentions were good.

It looked like today was one of those days, too. Manny was working on his (boring) work when Frida, with nothing else to do with her morning—which was more afternoon by now—came in and sat behind Manny and rested her head on his shoulder as she watched him work. She sighed in boredom as Manny continued with his work. Manny knew he should get it done, but he had a lady to attend to and that was a high priority; he had respect for his family and they always came first.

"I promise we can do something fun as soon as I'm done here, okay?" Manny assured her. Frida dragged on a sigh that sounded drowned in boredom. Manny lay back on his bed, bringing Frida down with him. Resulting in Manny laying slightly on top of her as he continued his work, Frida turned on her side and watched Manny work. She asked about some of the things he was doing as to learn at least a little something from observing him working, as she knew it would at least benefit her own schoolwork at least a little bit. Even if she would have to stop working a job and an education for a while because she'd be on maternity leave, she still wanted to make the most of what she was learning so she didn't have to be a stuck at home mother. That sounded boring. But Frida decided to wait because due to some stupid mood swings, she was dying to spend some time with Manny.

After a while of Manny doing schoolwork and Frida boredly watching and waiting, Manny told her that he was nearly finished and to not fret, because it would only take another half an hour then they could go get some lunch. Frida went to get ready and left Manny to his half an hour of work. Manny thought about Frida more as she walked away. Yeah, their lives were stressful right now, but the way he saw it everything was looking up. The superhero thing is going well, he's getting a career, he has a job at an okay restaurant, he's having a baby with the girl he's loved since they were kids and as soon as he had money for a ring, he would marry her. Things seemed to be looking up for the young superhero.

He always did have a positive attitude. No matter what went wrong in his life—even if he was the one causing the misfortune, accidently or otherwise—he always found away to look up. If he did something wrong, he always wanted to fix it so he could be positive about something. It was the way he was raised, and that was not just taught by his dad. His mother had taught him to be happy for what he had. Maybe it was just due to the fact that Rodolfo had told him that when he was sad just think about how lucky they were to have all they had because they were poor that Manny was the way he was, but he didn't care. The point was that he's happy with his life and he had no regrets in the world. Everything was going just fine.

Little did he know what unfortunate turns his 'perfect path' was going to take.

~…~

Walking out of the restaurant after a satisfying lunch, Manny and Frida bumped into a familiar older couple by accident. When they looked up to see who they were, they were surprised to see Frida's parents. An essence of awkwardness filled the air surrounding them as Frida crossed her arms in a way to say she was angry at them and didn't want to speak.

"Oh. What are you doing here?" Frida spat angrily. Manny stood by her silently. He had nothing to say to the people who upset his girl to such the extent; not to mention they hated him.

"Looking for you so you can come home." Frida sighed.

"There you go again, just beggin' me to go home. You guys really don't get it, do you?" Frida shook her head. Manny put his arm around Frida's shoulders in an effort to comfort her. Still, he said nothing.

"What, what don't we get?" Emiliano asked.

"You guys are so blind. You'd think that after all we've been through with Manny you would have accepted him by now but you haven't, have you? Do you even have a reason to hate him anymore?" Frida waited for the response, but there came none. Just a few "But, we…" then silences. Frida shook her head in disappointment. She couldn't believe how shallow some people could be, especially her own parents. She'd always been told by her peers that your parents support you through thick and thin, and no matter what happened they'd help you through. But hers just weren't because of some stupid dislike of a boy. If that was all it took to separate a family, this world was awful messed up.

"Maybe if you actually sat down and thought of all the things Manny has done for this town you'd be able to get your heads unstuck from your little all-about-yourself-bubble. I'm going on one month already, and you two haven't contributed anything to this baby," Manny started to lead Frida down the sidewalk away from her parents. He didn't like how upset it made Frida when she confronted her parents about the subject, and he hated it when she was upset. It made him want to turn to El Tigre and put the hurt on whoever made her sad or mad and make sure that they learned never to hurt her again. But he usually held back from it because he knew Frida did not see how that was necessary and did not want him doing it. So he didn't.

"Well I think I'm going to take a nap to make up for this morning's lost sleep." Frida kissed Manny's cheek and went to her room to take a nap. Manny sighed as he sat down on the couch. Rodolfo noticed this obvious sign of stress and glanced up from his book at Manny for a moment. He smiled. Rodolfo figured that after nineteen years of a child causing him stress, a child was causing the stress-causer stress. **(A/N: did that make sense? Lol :D)**

"What is the matter, my son? Is this not what you wanted?" Rodolfo asked. Manny put his feet up on the coffee table.

"It's just this whole thing with Frida's parents. Why don't they like me?" Manny worried. Rodolfo set down his book.

"Mi'jo, he worries for Frida's safety. Sometimes a parent's worries overcome him and he doesn't really pay attention to the important things around him. Understand, Manny?" Manny sighed and nodded. It would have to do for now, but Manny knew well it could not keep up. They couldn't go on hating the father of their first grandchild forever, it just won't work. When your daughter is having a baby, you can't just hate the father of your grandchild for your whole life, can you? Observing Manny was still unsettled, he said,

"Mi'jo, do not worry. Your mother and I have scheduled to meet with Frida's parents tomorrow over lunch and I will say something, okay?" Manny said it would have to do for now, but if they didn't at least accept what was happening then he would really be mad.

~…~

Rodolfo knocked on the front door to the Suarez home. Maria standing by him, they waited patiently at the door. A moment later, Carmela politely opened the front door and let them in with a smile. She complained to herself about Emiliano not willing to answer the door to those devil people even if his life depended on it. Why he was being so immature was beyond her.

"Please, sit down and make yourselves comfortable." Carmela said with a smile. Rodolfo and Maria sat on the couch across Emiliano, who had his arms crossed grumpily and sat back in his recliner chair hiding his anger behind his newspaper. Carmela came out with a plate of crackers and cheese and set it on the coffee table between the couches. Carmela nudged Emiliano in a way to silently tell him to put down the newspaper because he was being rude to their guests. Carmela sat on the couch besides Emiliano's chair and crossed her legs when she sat.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Carmela asked. Rodolfo waited a moment before responding.

"We have come to….make peace between my son and you two, especially if Manny plans to marry your Frida," Rodolfo explained, trying to be as subtle as he could be. He could tell Emiliano's temper was on the up and up right now, so he wanted to be careful choosing his words as not to upset him.

"What he means to say is we just want our grandchild to know and love all the members of its little family, and for you to be able to gladly give him your blessings." Maria added.

"Well, we would like to know our first grandchild as well, and see our daughter marry, but with all due respect they are only nineteen. This sort of thing should have waited a few more years, at the least." Carmela was being polite as she could, because she didn't want to upset anyone either.

"But, the thing is, Mrs. Suarez, no matter if that is true it has happened now and we must learn to accept it now." Rodolfo said. He was just a bit irritated. It was Emiliano's turn to speak up; he stood to further the point that he was mad.

"You only accept this so easily because of your stupid bloodline! You're just happy to have another destructive super-devil running around!" Rodolfo arose from his seat, offended by the accusation.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it? Miss your own daughter's wedding because you are selfish?" Rodolfo accused.

"Rodolfo, please-" Maria's plead was ignored, as was Carmela's to her husband. The two men were neck and neck, angry stares and all.

"I can learn to accept life as it happens because I do not let concern control my life, unlike you!" Rodolfo said loudly.

"I do not like my daughter running around doing careless things like having a baby when she is so young, unlike your lousy parenting!" Emiliano retorted. This statement angered Maria, because she knew that Rodolfo and herself did the best they could to raise Manny to be a proper man and they had done a good job of it. She stood to defend herself as well as her parenting methods.

"I beg to differ! We let Manny breathe and learn from his mistakes, all you do is suffocate Frida and tell her what you think is right and what you think is wrong! That is not an efficient parenting method!" Maria said. Carmela stood at this, and now all four people were loudly arguing. As the loud argument carried upstairs and into the bedrooms of Anita and Nikita, and the empty bedroom that had belonged to Frida. Anita and Nikita were still 'visiting', but they were sick of hearing this argument back and forth. They'd heard it between their father and their mother several times, but now it was between Manny's and their parents and it was getting just too old.

"EVERYONE BE QUIET!" All four adults froze and looked over to Anita and Nikita, who were standing at the bottom of the stairs near the living room where the four adults were talking. Anita and Nikita walked into the living room.

"Everyone sit down," their demands were followed as the parents sat back down. Anita and Nikita walked around the couches before speaking.

"You have all been letting this baby thing get the best of you, and you need to learn to just sit back and chill out." Anita started. She and Nikita had separated a bit as they grew older—they were past finishing each other's sentences and had learned to speak on their own and be a bit more independent. They didn't do everything together, but they did do a good deal of things together. They'd gone to the same police academy at the same time, and they both still liked to brag that their father was the police chief and they were shoo-ins for a job as police. This of course meant that they could work together as adults, which was something they adored.

"Can't you just take a deep breath and realize that two people are in love and are having a baby together?" Nikita said.

"Especially you, papa, have disappointed us. You have not let this go and it has already been a month in poor Frida's pregnancy. If you turn a cheek on this now, eight more months will have gone by and the baby will be out and you would realize just how much you'd missed just because you don't like Manny."

"And for what reason, too? Just because he's a superhero and he's better at putting people in jail than you? Are you just jealous, you're really going to let that get in the way of connecting with your family?" the room was silent. Anita and Nikita shook their heads and walked out of the room. It was awkward for a moment, then Emiliano stood and stuck his hand out to Rodolfo. Rodolfo shook it as he stood.

"I am sorry for yelling at you, but I was making a point and you were disagreeing with it. Bygones?" Rodolfo took his hand away from Emiliano's.

"Amazing," Rodolfo grabbed his coat and placed his hand on the doorknob, "you were just told all that and you still choose to be shallow. Are you happy with yourself?" Rodolfo and Maria walked out.

**Woww, I nearly forgot to add that last part! I knew I had an idea for this chapter, but I just forgot it. Oopsss….anyways, I feel like I'm doing a good job so far on really extending the story, you know, not rushing to the climax right away. Review?**


	5. Average Day

"So how did it go?" Manny asked, watching Rodolfo walk directly past him to angrily set his car keys down.

"We do not associate with them anymore, mi'jo," Rodolfo explained angrily.

"What he means is they still do not give in." Maria said. Manny sighed. Frida, sitting next to Manny on the couch, had no reaction.

"I knew they wouldn't. They're stubborn as a mule." Frida realized that she had been resting her hand over her tummy as she had her feet up on the coffee table in front of the couch. She knew that pregnant women did this a lot, so decided to let her hand remain where it is because she knew it would be a habit soon enough. Manny sat back down on the couch next to Frida and tune himself back into whatever it was that Frida wanted to watch. He was still very mad that Frida's parents were being so stubborn about accepting their grandchild, but it was starting to get old. Putting his arm around Frida via the back to the couch and turned his eyes to the TV. Frida glanced at the time on the clock behind the TV.

"Oh, we should get going Manny!" Frida stood and turned off the TV. Manny, sighing over his lost television time, stood after her and watched her grab her coat.

"To the mall to pick out some maternity wear. What, did you think I'd magically fit into all my clothes once I'm fat?" Frida teased.

"Pshh…no…" Frida chuckled and patted Manny's cheek and Manny followed her out the door.

~…~

Manny sat on the chair outside the changing room, waiting for Frida to come out after trying on all her clothes (she'd brought a pillow from home to stuff up her shirt to see how it would fit when she was big-bellied). She, for some reason, would not show him how she looked like most girls did—but then again, she wasn't most girls. It's not like I'd say she's ugly, Manny thought. But he decided he'd respect her privacy and her decisions and waited patiently. Patient, of course, meaning checking his watch every few minutes and smiling politely at people who passed by him.

Eventually, Frida came out with her pile of clothes and asked Manny which of the clothes he liked best.

"Frida, you look beautiful in anything you wear, okay?" Manny said. Frida sighed.

"Oh, you have no opinion at all." Frida continued to sort through her pile of clothes and picked out the ones she liked best. Manny sat and watched. Frida picked out a couple good outfits and put the other ones back on the rack. Manny stood, observing that she was finally through with her pregnant clothes shopping.

"Finally, we're done here?"

"Yes, we're done _clothes _shopping…" Frida said. Manny sighed.

"Oh, what are we doing next?" Manny said in a complaining tone.

"Remember I told you we were going to look at baby stuff after I was done with the clothes part?" Frida explained. Then Manny remembered her saying that.

"Well, that's not too terribly awful…" They approached the counter and Frida placed the clothes down. The lady at the cash register sneered at Frida as she observed the couples' young age. Manny noticed this and crossed his arms, but didn't say anything. The sales clerk told Frida the price and Frida pulled the money from her purse and the lady bagged Frida's clothes and gave her the change. Thanking the lady behind the cash register, they walked out of the maternity wear store and found a store that sold all baby stuff.

As Manny began to notice just how surrounded by baby stuff he was, he felt a bit scared.

"We need all this?" Manny asked, shocked.

"Well, maybe not everything in here is absolutely necessary for baby care, but most of it is."

"Do we even have enough money for all of this?"

"Yes,"

"How? I just started my second job and I'm saving my paychecks for—uhh, an apartment…" _and an engagement ring…_

"Well…"

**Flashback…**

_Frida was walking down the street, minding her own business and whistling merrily when she was stopped by a passerby. Frida looked up from her iPod, which she had just paused, to see her mother. Frida crossed her arms._

"_What do you want?" Frida asked, indignant. Carmela slipped something from her jacket pocket as if it were some huge secret._

"_Frida, I looked for you because I want you to know that it's not both your parents who aren't supporting you. I support you and I want to help you with my grandchild's life. So here is a bundle of money you will need for maternity wear, baby stuff, etc.," Carmela explained. Frida, shocked, took the money from her mother's hand and slipped it into her hand beneath her iPod. Frida smiled at her mother because she knew that her mother never lied and she had always, despite her husband, supported her youngest daughter's relationship. Frida hugged her mother._

"_You know your family loves you very much, mi'ja, and I just want to let you know that."_

**Flashback enddd.**

"Emiliano, why can't you just accept this?" Carmela asked. Emiliano sighed and set down the newspaper, aggravated.

"Why do you keep badgering me about this? I do not think it is right for their age." Emiliano said. Everyone knew well that that was not his real reason.

"It is not right for our daughter's boyfriend to propose to your Frida just because they are young? Stop being so selfish, Emiliano! They are in love and that is all that should matter to you." Carmela pestered. Emiliano sighed and stood from his chair.

"I cannot accept this because my baby girl is growing up too fast!" He blurted. The room fell silent. Carmela smiled.

"Dear, they have all grown up fast. Anita and Nikita already have their own jobs and apartment," she paused, "it is only part of life. You have to let her grow up sometime." Emiliano plopped himself back on the kitchen table chair with a sigh.

~…~

"Finding everything okay?" The sales clerk at the baby store asked as she approached Manny and Frida, who were browsing cribs. Frida smiled politely and responded,

"Yes, thank you."

"First child?" The clerk asked.

"Yeah. We don't have a clue about any of this, to be honest," Frida said, as if it were a relief to get that off her chest.

"Well, in my opinion the crib you'd be best fit with is this darling little thing over here," The clerk lead Manny and Frida to a white crib with yellow padding on the bottom, as a sample.

"Do you know the gender yet?" She asked.

"No, not yet,"

"But we're hoping for a boy," Manny added. Frida rolled her eyes at Manny's input.

"Well what we have here is a sturdy, comfy-cozy crib that doesn't cost too terribly much which is good for young parents, and we can set up blue bedding for it if you'd like." The sales lady explained. Frida appreciated the fact that the lady noted her being a young mother politely instead of people at maternity wear stores who glare at her with disgust. It was those kinds of people who you learned to like.

"Well I think it's cute, don't you Manny?" Frida said with a smile. Manny, arms crossed, nodded.

"Yeah, but what exactly is the price?" Manny asked. The sales clerk pointed to the tag attached to the crib bar and held it in her hand.

"Not too terrible, like I said. It's about $250 dollars, give or take sales tax. Not too awful," Manny sighed in relief at a volume where only he could hear it. He'd thought that they would have cost _a lot _more than that.

"That's so relieving!" Frida smiled at him.

"How much did you think cribs cost?" Frida asked. Manny blushed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I dunno…" He muttered. Frida chuckled.

"We'll take it," The sales lady nodded.

**Well, good news bad news moment. The good news is I updated! The bad news is I'll be gone all weekend and won't have a computer with me. I don't think that'll be terrible, it just means if I had plans to update my other El Tigre story this weekend that they would be postponed to like, next week. Not a problem. So review!**


	6. Money

Frida tried slipping her skirt over her thighs, but for the life of her could not. The skirt was a size two, but now she felt so bloated, so...size six_. Guess it's time for those maternity clothes… _Frida plucked out a gray sweater, a white wool long-sleeve to put on underneath it, and stretchy comfortable jeans. She missed her comfortable clothing. But she had a variety of large, long shirts that she'd start fitting into once she got wider.

Walking out of her room and onto the couch in the living room next to Manny, Frida sighed.

"What's wrong?" Manny asked. Frida set her head down on Manny's shoulder.

"I can't even fit into my clothes anymore...I feel so _large_." Manny hugged her tight.

"Oh, you're the same beautiful girl to me. Besides, I don't mind it a bit. I like your new outfit." Frida liked when Manny said these things to her, and they helped, but they just weren't enough to make her feel like she wasn't getting fat. Manny smiled at her and hugged her once more.

"Well, if it'll cheer you up at all, your first day at work is today and I have to start my second job at the grocery store today. New start for both of us." Manny said, trying to be positive. Frida sighed.

"But I don't want to work at a fast food place! People will see how fat I am and glare at me." Frida whined.

"Oh, Frida, if anyone bothers you just ignore them. And if they still bother you, I'll beat 'em up." Manny said. It wasn't much comfort, but for Frida it would have to do.

They both went to get ready for their job(s).

~…~

Frida walked into the fast food place shyly. She came to the counter, found the way to the back, and found where she was supposed to punch in her time card.

Before she could, someone stopped her.

"You're Frida Suarez?" The man asked. He looked older, and he was dressed a bit more formally, so Frida figured he was probably her boss.

"Yeah." Frida answered.

"Welcome to Speedy's Chicken! My name is Franc, and I'm your boss," He patted Frida's back in a supportive kind of way.

"And you don't have a permanent station, persay, you'd be working a different position each day. Although if you're uncomfortable working in back processing food, you can just stay up front, do take out windows and cash registers. I can't make you do something you're uncomfortable doing," Frida nodded and smiled politely, and Franc led her to her station for the day. She could work the cash register as an easy start. Frida felt lucky that she had learned at least one thing from school: how to count money correctly. Frida took her position at the cash register.

"Have fun!" Franc walked away. The person working the cash register next to Frida smiled at the new employee.

"First day on the job, huh?" Frida's co-worker smirked.

"Yeah. I'm kinda nervous. I wouldn't have had to get a job like this if it weren't for my boyfriend getting me this thing," Frida patted her stomach.

"Oh, you're expecting?" Frida's co-worker asked. Frida nodded.

"Well congratulations to you both," she said politely. Frida smiled.

"Thank you," Frida liked that this girl was being polite about it.

"Oh, my name's Kathy by the way." Frida shook hands with Kathy,

"Frida Suarez."

~…~

Manny had had a good work day so far. He had the morning shift of his new job at the grocery store, and the later shift at the restaurant where he worked—where he was home from now. He had a bright smile on his face because he had walked into work and his boss had handed him an envelope when he was clocking in and hanging up his coat, exclaiming "Pay day!" as he handed Manny the envelope. Manny had looked forward to the rest of his day after that.

Manny walked through his front door, saw Frida was not there (because he wanted to show her after he showed his father and grandfather) and held up the envelope with his paycheck in it. He had a bright smirk on his face along with the high-held envelope.

"Your first paycheck, mi'jo good job!" Rodolfo congratulated. Grandpapi stood and patted Manny on the back, a motion that had an evil feel to it.

"Now you can use it for evil!" He exclaimed.

"Or," Manny said, "I could use it to set aside for a ring for Frida." Grandpapi shied away from Manny and sat back on the couch and watched TV.

"That is a wise choice, mi'jo. If you need a jar to store it in, there are some extras by the sink in the kitchen." Rodolfo said. Manny nodded, thanked his father, got the jar from the kitchen, and found Frida in her room. By the looks of it, she was relaxing after work.

"So, how'd your first day go?" Manny asked. Frida sighed.

"Ugh, it was hard. I was started out at cash register, but you wouldn't believe how many people come in in a day! I'm exhausted from standing all day." Frida said. Manny sat down next to her.

"Well guess what?" Manny asked with a smile.

"Hmm?"

Manny placed his paycheck on Frida's lap. Frida smiled down at it and picked it up.

"Manny, your first paycheck! This is awesome! We can start to save for a house now!"

_And other stuff…_

Manny smiled and showed her that he was putting the check in the jar. Frida patted Manny's cheek and lay back on her bed.

**Viola! Chapter siiiixxxxx. Good? Bad? Why? Why not? Review!**


	7. Task Three: Marriage?

As Manny walked down the street, hand intertwined with Frida's as they found their way to Maria's house, he contemplated something he'd been thinking about ever since he woke up that morning: there was an emergency supply of money that Rodolfo had kept for, well, emergencies. Manny had contemplated asking his father to dip into the emergency supply just a teensy bit so he could buy Frida a ring. He could be a very impatient man when it came to certain things; and this was one thing that he knew had to be introduced at the right moment. He had to make the perfect moment for it, and it had to be perfect—but that required the patience that he did not posses. And sometimes, that was the worst part. Sometimes he acted very odd because he had the topic on his mind, yet other times he could be perfectly cool, calm and collected.

"Hang on, Manny, can we sit for a minute? My feet are sore." Frida asked. Manny nodded and guided Frida to a park bench nearby. Manny let her sit down first, then once she was situated, went to get her a bottle of water, as he had observed she looked a bit thirsty. Frida admired Manny's gentleman-ness; he always knew just what to say and just when to say it.

Frida, sitting on the park bench in a white t-shirt and jeans, watched as a guy who appeared to be about twenty or twenty-one sat next to her on the park bench and smiled at her (which Frida thought to be almost flirtatious). Frida smiled back politely at him and waited for Manny to return.

"Hey," the boy greeted. Frida turned her head to him; he was waiting for her response.

"Hi," Frida answered politely. He smiled at her more.

"Nice day, huh?"

"Yeah. Nice breeze," Frida commented. She noticed that the line at the churro stand where Manny had gone to get water was a decent size, and sighed to herself.

"So, what's a pretty lady like you doing alone in the park?" Frida now knew that he was trying to flirt with her, so tried to be as polite as she could while rejecting him.

"Oh, just waiting for my boyfriend to come back with some water," Frida placed a hand over her small tummy, hoping that would be a sign to him that she's pregnant. He nodded, suddenly seeming as if he had stopped flirting.

Soon enough, Manny came back with Frida's water. He noticed the boy sitting beside her and glared at him as he helped Frida up and walked away. He had glanced over to her to see that she was content sitting and massaging her ankles and had saw that he was sitting next to her, smiling flirtatiously. He was glad that Frida was being polite and rejecting him, but something about seeing her with other guys just did not sit well with him. Something made him feel jealous inside, and he knew that if Frida had stuck with him this long she was his all the way and no one else's; but he just didn't want her to be subjected to that; he wanted to let her know that if she ever dreamed of leaving him, don't because that would be the worst mistake of her life; something to let her know that she is all his and no one else's, and he is all hers and no one else's. It made him that much more impatient to ask her.

It made him like the idea of dipping into the emergency funds and proposing to her immediately; the sooner she could be his, the better. As Manny and Frida walked further through town, they grew closer to Maria's mansion. Manny knew that his mother would provide good advice on the subject, as she always did. She seemed to be quite good at saying the right thing at the right time, and pushing him in the direction best for him, and he appreciated his mother for that.

Manny opened the front gate to his mother's home for Frida and allowed her to walk through first, then walked in behind her and they found their way to the front door and walked in. Maria was sitting in her living room reading a book when Manny and Frida walked in, and Frida had grown hungry so she went to fetch a snack from the churro sink. Manny sat across from his mother and sighed as he slumped in his seat.

"Mom, how do you decide between asking a girl to marry you now and waiting until you earn the money for a ring?" Manny asked. Maria closed her book and set it down beside her, smiling at her son.

"Well, mi'jo, don't you love her?" Maria asked.

"Of course I do, there's no doubt," Manny said, "it's just, when I saw that guy flirting with her today…I-I don't know, I felt so…jealous." Manny explained.

Frida, having been walking down the hall on the second floor near above where Manny and his mother were talking, when she heard bits and pieces of what Manny was saying, was squatting behind a wall and listening contently to what Manny was saying. Frida was completely flattered about what Manny had said and was sighing with admiration. Manny really felt that way?

Apparently her loud sighing had been heard, because Manny looked up above him to see who was there. Frida quickly ducked out of sight to allow Manny to talk to his mother.

"Anyways, I just feel like I can't wait any longer. I've been waiting to ask her ever since she told me she was pregnant, but I've just been waiting for the money. But, it's really hard to wait." Frida listened intently. What was he talking about? Money? What was he saving for—aside from baby stuff and a house—that sounded so important? What was he going to do?

"Well, mi'jo, when you feel like it is the right time you will know." Frida was perplexed at what they were saying. What on earth were they talking about? Right time?

"Oh, there you are Frida!" Manny exclaimed as he saw Frida on the staircase. Frida cursed under her breath and smiled as she walked back into the room, chewing on a delicious churro.

"Yeah, just forgot where the churro sink was for a second." Frida explained. Their conversation was echoing through her head as she sat down next to Manny and continued a conversation about how her pregnancy and relationship with her parents was going.

~…~

Manny barged into the front door of his father's house after a long day of two jobs. He wanted to ask his father, make him understand that he needed to say yes, get the money and buy the ring. Just to get it over with.

"Dad, can we talk?" Manny asked. Rodolfo set down the newspaper curiously.

"Mi'jo, you are supposed to be at your mother's?" Rodolfo said.

"Dad, I came to ask for a little bit of the emergency money so I can buy a ring," Manny said.

"But mi'jo, you know that is for emergencies." Manny sat beside his father.

"Dad, I love Frida and I just can't wait anymore. I can't wait for my next payday, don't you understand?"

"Mi'jo, you do not need a real ring to propose. I used a cheap plastic ring off of a cupcake to propose to your mother when money was tight and we were married anyways," Rodolfo explained.

"Come on, dad please? I want it to be special," Rodolfo sighed.

"How much more do you need?"

"Not much, just a little over a hundred dollars," Manny had adorned a puppy-dog look by now and Rodolfo could not stand the innocence of it.

"I guess so." Manny jumped up from the couch.

"Yess! Thank you dad!" Manny gave Rodolfo a big hug and went to retrieve the money he needed.

~…~

Manny entered the jewelry store with the money in his pocket. He had already looked at rings secretly, when Frida was still in month one and morning sick, and didn't want to go anywhere. He had picked out one in particular that he liked, but didn't have the money for it. But now he was back to buy it and he would set a date with Frida and ask her then. He just hoped that no one had come along and bought it while he had been saving money.

Manny stepped up to the counter and looked at the selection of rings when the sales clerk behind the counter approached him.

"Got your eye on anything yet?" He asked. Manny looked up.

"Yeah, I wanted to get an engagement ring for my girlfriend." Manny explained. The jeweler smiled slyly, observing Manny's rather young age. He led Manny to their selection of rings.

"This is all we have," He explained. Manny looked down to see a selection of roughly fifteen engagement rings on display. Manny studied them; they all looked perfect, Manny thought, how can I possibly choose?

"Well which one costs the least?" Manny asked. The jeweler pointed to a ring on the right.

"I believe this one is about 600 dollars." **(A/N: sorry if that price sounds a bit off, I don't really know the price range for these things. I looked it up but didn't get much info) **The jeweler explained. Manny bit his lip. That was nearly all the money he had earned. But it looked just like Frida's type to Manny, and it seemed like it was perfect for her. Plus, he'd gotten all the best advice from his father and other people that he knew that had experience with those types of things and he'd gotten all the information he could get.

"It'll have to do for the money I have…" Manny said.

"Excellent choice," The jeweler unlocked the display case and took out the engagement ring, showing it to Manny. Now that Manny saw it in a different light, it looked absolutely perfect for Frida. Manny smiled widely.

"I'll take it!"

Not too much later, Manny was walking out of the jewelry store with a velvet box clutched in his pocket.

**That was so cuteee XD Looks like Manny's got some set-in-stone plans for his and Frida's future….review!**


	8. Say Yes

Frida was happy that it was a bright, sunny day out as she walked home from a long day at work. She didn't much like walking after a long day of standing at a take-out window, handing people their food, but she didn't like the city buses any more. Plus, it wasn't really that far from Manny's house anyways; just a couple blocks.

Suddenly, as she stopped at a crosswalk, she heard a loud whooshing sound and right in front of her eyes, on the other side of the street, was Black Cuervo; glaring evilly at her. Frida swallowed hard. Despite the fact that her and Manny had been dating since they were thirteen—six years by now—_and _the fact that she was now having his child, Zoe had never made an effort to befriend Frida and whenever Frida tried to bury the hatchet Zoe didn't allow her. But Zoe had never really lashed out at her like she used to; all she ever did when she came near Frida was glare and give her dirty looks as she passed.

But this time was very different. The evil glare on Zoe's face was much more than what it was all the other times. This time Zoe seemed determined, like she had a mission and she would complete it. She was after something.

Then the light went red which allowed the people on the streets to allow the people on the sidewalks to cross the street. Frida swallowed nervously but crossed the street cautiously anyways. Zoe's evil glare turned to an evil smile, and that made Frida even more nervous. She barely even wanted to cross the street anymore.

The closer she got, the more threatening Zoe looked.

Then, when Frida was close to the other end of the street, Zoe lifted herself via her jetpack and was aiming some sort of laser gun at Frida. Frida stepped back, suddenly very scared.

"Maybe now you'll know what it feels like to die inside you _whore_!" Zoe screamed, about to shoot.

But she told herself that the only reason she had held back is because she felt she would regret killing a baby before it even had the chance to be born.

Before she had the chance to shoot, something attacked her and sent her flying into a wall. When she looked up, she saw El Tigre with his arm around Frida, comforting her, having his free hand on her tummy. The sight brought tears to her eyes. How could he betray her like this? How could he just ignore her feelings like this?

"Frida, you okay?" Manny asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay…" Frida said, still sounding kind of scared. Manny felt relieved that she was okay, but then he realized there was a second little person he had to be concerned about.

"Did she hurt you? Kick you, punch you, anywhere near the tummy? No stomachaches at all?" Manny asked. Frida smiled and placed her hand on his cheek.

"Manny, she didn't lay a finger on me." Frida said. Manny felt more relieved now.

"Phew…that's a relief…" Manny said. He looked over his shoulder to see that Cuervo was still coming to. Manny prepared for a battle.

Zoe stood up dizzily and in a matter of minutes the world around her stopped spinning. She saw Manny and Frida standing there still. She felt so angry that they were so happy together; it was like their happiness fueled her anger. They don't deserve to be together, she thought.

Zoe lashed at them again, but Manny blocked her once again and it was then when Zoe looked back at them that she saw just how happy they were together; if she were to kill Frida now, it would devastate Manny. Even if she made sure no one knew it was her who had done it, he would never talk to anyone again. Maybe he'd go inside and never come out again; a recluse. And she didn't want that.

Cuervo was heartbroken, but she knew that if she wanted Manny to be happy with his true love it was not to be her. Tears came to her eyes, and she ran back home.

"So much for that," Frida said, turning to Manny.

"Yeah, she hasn't attacked you like that before." They shrugged and Manny took her the rest of the way home.

~…~

When Cuervo walked into the abandoned warehouse with a forlorn look on her face, Sinestro and Chipotle were curious.

"What happened? Why didn't you call us in?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Cuervo spat, walking right out of the room. She still had some stuff to gather before she left her 'co-workers' so to speak. She had acquired their help for one mission, and one mission only; _but that mission had crashed and burned because of my stupid heart._

However, they did not listen well. Chipotle and Sergio followed her upstairs, asking her repeatedly what had happened.

"Look, I said I don't want to talk about it! Just go away!" Zoe barked. The boys took a step back and everything was silent for a moment.

"If you really must know, you twits, I couldn't do it. But that's all I'll say. Now leave me alone. I'm done with you two." Zoe brushed past them and went home, where she was comforted and consoled by her mother and grandmother.

~…~

"Umm, Frida, you ready yet? Lunch only counts as lunch for a certain amount of time." Manny asked through Frida's closed bedroom door.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm almost ready. Just hang on a moment." Manny had his hands stuffed in his pocket, fingering the velvet box he had bought earlier that week. Soon enough, Frida opened the door to her room and stood in front of Manny with a smile. Manny stuck out his elbow, and Frida hooked arms with him; they started their way to lunch.

Once they were done eating lunch at their favorite restaurant, had paid and were ready to leave, Manny and Frida started walking through the park. Frida needed to get the right amount of exercise to have a healthy baby, just like she needed to exercise normally when she wasn't feeding for two. They found it was the best way; plus, the doctor had even said just walking normally was the best way.

Manny was still twirling the velvet box around in his pocket, and the more he thought about it the more nervous he was. He had gotten all the best advice from the people around him: his father, his mother, his grandpapi…but none of the advice he was given was sinking in now that the moment was here, the moment had arrived, that he was to finally bend down on his knee in that distinctive moment where once you kneel she automatically suspects what is going on. What if she were to say no? It was all too possible, Frida was so unpredictable at times—whatever you expected her to do, she often did the opposite. His mother had even said that after all they had been through, there was no way she would say no.

But then that made Manny think of his family's history. All the Rivera women ended up leaving the man, it was just what happened. He knew before that she would always love him, and she had said so numerous times. But Manny couldn't help a generational thing. His thoughts kept going back and forth between yes and no, and it didn't help any. He just needed to chill out, clear his mind, ask her and see where life goes from there.

"Umm, hey Frida can I ask you something?" Manny asked, swallowing nervously. Frida had her normal smile on her face, which made Manny even more nervous. He pulled her aside, under the shade of a tree. Frida was curious as to what Manny had to ask her that he couldn't ask while they walked.

Manny felt like he was stuttering a bit on his words as he explained to her that they had been dating for a long time now and they both know that they love each other very much. He swallowed nervously before continuing.

"Yeah, Manny, where is this going?" Frida asked curiously; however, her curiosity grew when Manny had bent down on his knee. Where was he going with this? Frida had a feeling like butterflies in her stomach that she knew what he was going to say next.

"F-Frida, will you…will you marry me?" Frida covered her mouth with her hand as she silently gasped. She hadn't even begun to think of marriage with all that had happened to her—dating for six years, getting pregnant, her father STILL not accepting Manny as her one true love…(he was coming around by now, so she had been told by her mother. She was yet to find out when she visited later) Frida dawned a wide smile and jumped onto Manny with a hug.

"Oh, Manny yes I will!" She exclaimed. Manny felt so relieved by her answer that it was like so much pressure had been taken off his shoulders.

~…~

After a much more exciting walk in the park, it was time for Frida's scheduled doctor's appointment. She was supposed to get her first sonogram of the baby, and they were excited.

Frida's mother was going to come with them, but Emiliano's excuse was 'he had to work today', which angered Frida; but she ignored it due to the fact that she was too elated.

In the waiting room, while Manny was off checking them in, Frida and her mother sat in the waiting room and Frida was jumping for joy in her seat.

"Mom, you'll never believe it! Manny proposed today!" Frida said quietly to her mother. Carmela pretended to be surprised, but was still very excited.

"No! Get out!" Frida nodded ecstatically and showed her mother the ring. Carmela gasped.

"Oh my gosh, it's breathtaking. Has he been saving for this since you got pregnant?" Carmela asked.

"Yeah, he said he was. I'm so happy I can barely sit still!"

After a bit longer of conversation, Manny, Frida and Carmela were called in and the sonogram was set up. The jelly was rubbed over Frida's small-lump belly and to Frida it felt cold and it tickled.

Soon enough the sonogram showed and when Manny and Frida saw it they couldn't take their eyes off it. The doctor could determine the gender by now, and asked Manny and Frida if they wanted to know but they said no; they wanted it to be a surprise.

Soon enough the sonogram was done and the jelly was removed.

"Well, Ms. Suarez, everything looks good so far. You're three months along, which means you're just ending your first trimester." The doctor explained. Frida nodded. Everything, so far, was going great.

After the doctor's appointment, Manny and Frida walked through the residential end of town to see what houses were for sale. They wanted to get a general idea of what they wanted for a house before they bought one.

"Oh, this one is nice." They stopped in front of a house that looked in good shape, but all Manny was concerned about was the price.

"Yeah, looks expensive to me." Frida wrapped her hands around Manny's arm and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Oh, Manny, our life is beginning."

**Pashawwww, a lot happened this chapter! Oh goddd, that was sooo cute. Oh dear. I'm exploding with cuteness. How 'bout you? Review!**


	9. Why Does He Do This To Me?

"Cuervo, you cannot just give up. They have wronged us greatly! Revenge must be wrought upon their wretched mistake!" Chipotle exclaimed. Zoe remained slumped in her chair and groaning in misery.

"What is the use? If we separate them they will not want anyone else. They won't move on." However, it was deeper than that for Zoe.

"You don't know that. If we break them up making Frida think of Manny as a complete jerk, and I am there as a shoulder to cry on, she'll come to me-"

"Or me!" Sergio interrupted. Chipotle cleared his throat.

"in a heartbeat," he finished, glaring irritated at Sergio. Zoe sighed in misery.

_How can I separate a child from her real father when this very thing had happened to me in my childhood? _

However, Zoe's male counterparts wouldn't give up. After a few minutes more of their prodding, Zoe had enough.

"ALRIGHT! Fine! I'll help you get your stupid revenge! Just shut up, will you?" The boys celebrated a moment to themselves.

"The plan is simple. We will each have an important task. Sergio, your task is to try to convince Frida that Manny is no good. Get it in her head that he cannot be trusted, and he could betray her at any moment. Zoe, you will coax Manny into betraying Frida. I don't care how you do it, but your two steps combined will make it so Frida will never be able to forgive Manny for what he will do." Chipotle explained.

"What are you going to do?" Zoe asked. Chipotle rubbed his hands together menacingly.

"I will have the task of making sure Frida's family, especially her father, sees to it that Manny is never allowed near Frida ever again."

~…~

Frida burst through the front door to her parents' house with a large smile on her face. She walked into the kitchen where her mother and her sisters resided. They noticed her wide smile and Anita asked,

"What are you so happy about?" Carmela, of course, already knew what it was about, but she let Frida say it anyways. As Anita was asking her question, Emiliano walked in and began to pour some coffee.

"Manny proposed!" Frida exclaimed. As Emiliano sipped his coffee and listened, he nearly choked on it when he heard her news.

"He did? Oh, congratulations hermana!" Anita and Nikita stood to hug their sister in congratulations.

"He-he what?" Emiliano asked, trying to stay calm.

"Dad, don't start." Frida said. Emiliano stayed silent.

Frida continued to show off her engagement ring to her family.

After a while, Anita and Nikita had work things to do so they left. Frida was about to leave when Emiliano asked,

"Frida—"

"First of all, dad, if you're going to comment on me and Manny getting married then don't waste your breath. Second, no I am not going to come back home for several reasons. First of all, we're saving money to buy a house anyways. Second of all, I can't live in a household where my own father can't just grow up and realize that his youngest daughter is having perhaps the only grandchild you'll ever have, and the only wedding involving your daughter as the bride. So if you're still going to sit back and disapprove of this relationship, then don't bother showing up to our wedding." Frida turned to the door and left. Carmela leaned on the wall nearby.

"Honestly, Emiliano, I don't know why you still say those things. First of all, this is your first grandchild. Second of all, this is your own daughter's wedding and she just told you not to come. I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty lousy after that." Carmela left the room as well.

~…~

When Frida miserably swung open the front door to the Rivera's apartment-top home and walked to her room without a word, Manny curiously followed her.

"Something wrong, Frida?" Manny asked when they got to her room. Frida laid flat on her bed.

"Oh, it's my dad," Frida explained. Manny felt a little mad.

"He still doesn't approve? Even after you told them we're getting married?" Frida nodded.

"What's wrong with him? His youngest daughter is getting married _and _having a baby! I'm pretty sure this is a once in a lifetime thing, because I don't think your sisters will be into anything like this! He's got to grow up a little." Manny complained.

"I know, that's what I said."

"Why I ought to talk some sense into that guy…" Manny mumbled.

"Manny, don't even. Please, just leave it be?" Frida begged. Manny sighed.

"Fine, I won't say anything…" Manny said with a sigh, "but hey, we gotta go shopping for wedding bands." Manny held out his hand to help her up and wrapped his arm around her as they left for the jewelry store.

~…~

Manny opened the door to the jewelry store for Frida, allowing her to walk in first. They approached the counter and began browsing.

"Hola, senor! How may I help you today?" The clerk asked.

"We're looking for wedding bands, actually." Tony explained. The clerk nodded.

"Well our selection isn't a very vast one, but we have some pretty good ones right over here…" The clerk trailed off with explanations of wedding bands as he led them over to the selection of wedding bands.

As Frida looked at the collection they had, the clerk muttered to Manny:

"So, sealing the deal, eh?" Manny sneered and crossed his arms angrily, indicating he didn't like the clerk saying that. The store clerk backed off and assisted Manny and Frida as they picked out a golden wedding band for each other that they had their choice of message to carve into the inside.

They each wrote a short, small message on a piece of paper. Manny would have wrote down an essay about how much he loved her, but he knew he had to keep it short and sweet. So he wrote: _I love you._

**Ehh, that was short. But I finished it in a day which is rare for me lately, so you know, yay for me. Review?**

***Side note: Hermana=sister.**


	10. Too Much Work!

Manny and Frida sat at Manny's kitchen table with two handfuls of wedding paperwork.

"Ugh, I thought all the job applications were a lot of work!" Manny whined.

"Okay, umm, what about the week after that?" Frida asked, pointing to a date on the calendar. Manny looked at the date.

"That might work! I don't have anything then." Manny said.

"Good! Keep that day clear!" Frida exclaimed. She circled the date and wrote in large letters 'wedding date!' and they moved on to more papers.

Manny checked his watch and jumped up from the table.

"I have to go to work!" Manny said, running to his room to grab his work clothes and ran out the front door in a hurry. Frida sighed as Rodolfo passed by.

"What is wrong, Frida?" He asked.

"Ugh, Manny just went to work and left me with all this wedding paperwork!" Frida complained. Rodolfo waltzed closer to the table.

"What is it all for?" He asked.

"It's just wedding preparation stuff. We picked it up earlier today, but we didn't think there'd be that much!" Frida complained. Rodolfo took a seat next to Frida and looked at all the paperwork there was.

"Ahh, I remember going through all that…" Rodolfo reminisced.

"Then mind giving me a hand?" Frida asked in an annoyed tone.

"I can't do that! You have to complete the paperwork with your fiancée! You two make all the decisions within this paperwork. None of it is my choosing," Rodolfo said, standing again with his coffee and attending to his own business. Frida groaned loudly in complaint and set down the paperwork to get ready for her own job, her hand resting on her tummy.

On her way to work, Frida was harmlessly walking down the sidewalk when Zoe showed up next to her and began walking.

"What do you want?" Frida growled. Zoe chuckled, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

"Oh, do not worry! I'm not here to harm you. I'm here to warn you, actually," Zoe explained. Frida huffed.

"Yeah, right."

"I am! You'll thank me after," Zoe paused and looked around to make sure no one was listening, to assure Frida that it was of utmost secrecy but she was telling Frida out of trust anyways; which was a complete lie.

"It's about Manny."

"What? What would you possibly tell me about Manny that I'd thank you about?"

"He's not the man you think he is. He's deceiving you. He doesn't mean to marry you, or support you and the baby with two jobs. You don't even know what he's doing right now. How do you know he's being honest and truthful to you?" Zoe said.

"Hah! Nice try, Zoe. I know Manny, and I know he loves me and he loves our baby. He's out there working right now, I know that, and I know that he's serious about this marriage. So don't even try."

"Fine, whatever, don't believe me. But take a look into his past; his personality; his persona. He's a tiger at heart. Tigers are large, ferocious creatures who endlessly chase their prey until they've gotten what they wanted. And once they get what they want, they only chew away at their prey for a short while before dragging it hopelessly across the ground and forgetting it. He'll get over you eventually, I promise you. He'll just drag you across that ground and leave you for the others. So its your choice, Frida," Zoe said, "save yourself or get eaten by the predator." And with that, Zoe walked away with a smug smile.

Frida stood in her spot in shock. She knew Manny would never do that to her, but the way Zoe had said it had sounded so sure. Why did she sound so confident?

Frida continued on her way to work, Zoe's words pasted to her mind the whole time.

~…~

At Maria's house after the two were done with all their work, they were going over more baby and wedding stuff; and they had enough of it, honestly.

"This house does look nice, but it would take forever to save enough money for it," Frida said exhaustedly.

"Well this one is within a reasonable price range," Manny pointed to another picture and evaluation of a house.

"Yeah, but the environment isn't safe and the house looks so run down," Frida commented. Manny sighed as Maria walked through the room. Maria stopped near them with a smile.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Ugh, all this house-shopping and baby stuff is too overwhelming! We need a break!" Manny complained. Maria chuckled.

"Oh, it's only for now. You'll see. Soon, things will begin to look up." Maria said.

"Yeah, people keep saying that…" Manny whined. Maria took a seat next to Manny and Frida on the couch.

"Look, guys. Getting married and having a baby at the same time, especially when you're only nineteen, is hard! You still have a lot of growing up to do. You haven't even gotten to go through college, really. And you do the most growing up in college." Maria explained. Manny and Frida sat back, feeling heavy with stress. Maria chuckled lightly, stood, patted Manny's shoulder and walked into the next room.

All they really knew what to do next was to do more house-shopping and more baby stuff.

**Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm on a short chapter rampage. Its short and I don't care. Its all I can muster for now, so review!**

**Edit-Oh dear, did I say Pepper instead of Frida? So sorry! I was updating several stories for another show-Iron Man, Armored Adventures-and one of the character's names is Pepper. So I must have said Pepper out of force of habit. If that happens more than often, then now you know why...clumsy me! -.-  
**


	11. Normalcy, Kinda

Manny sat behind the register at work, sighing out of boredom. The lunch rush had passed, and now business was slow. There were only a few people here and there still eating the last of their lunches, but overall he had no business.

That is, until he saw two familiar boys whom Manny identified immediately.

"What do you two want?" Manny asked sourly. Diego smiled devilishly and as he approached the counter, he leaned on it, bringing himself closer to Manny.

"Oh, come on Manny, we're all friends here right?" Manny sneered in anger.

"Not in a million years," Manny spat.

"Aw, is all that working for your baby tiring you?" Diego said, making a pouty-face.

"As long as its for my baby, I'll never be tired of it." This time Sergio stepped up to the counter.

"Give it up, Manuel. Do you really want a baby? Do you really want all that responsibility? You have your responsibilities as a superhero, and if you have a baby, you won't have any time for El Tigre. All your time will be taken by this child. There will be time for nothing. else." Sergio said with a menacing smile matched with a devilish look to his eyes. Manny had to admit to himself, the thoughts they were pushing into his head were scaring him. But he knew not to mind it because it would all pay off.

"But ditch her now, Manuel," Diego stepped in, "and you won't have to worry about any of that. You'll have your whole life to do whatever your heart desires."

And with that, they left Manny to his work—in a different state of mind than he was before they had come.

~…~

"Agh! How dare that slut talk back to me like that!" Zoe fumed, slamming her fist into the wall of the place she had selected for the meeting place of her, Chipotle and Sergio. She realized that they weren't there, but she didn't care. She began to pace the floor of Chipotle's—and his father's—secret lab, where their secret hiding place was.

"She has no right to take him from me. She doesn't deserve Manny! She doesn't even deserve to live after bitching at me! She should be dead by now!" Zoe shouted angrily. She didn't care if anyone was there, either. She was angry.

"She and her stupid kid do not deserve to live, let alone with Manny!" She spat.

"I will make that whore pay and I will get Manny for myself. And I will use these two fools to get him," She watched and narrowed her eyes as she watched Sergio and Diego approaching the lair.

~…~

"Well, Ms. Suarez, you're beginning a healthy third month of pregnancy. You're all set to go," The doctor explained with a friendly smile, scribbling something onto the paper attached to his clipboard.

"Thank you, doctor," Frida said, scooting off the check-up bed, grabbing her coat, and left to get back to her class.

Back on campus, Frida was starting to get worried and annoyed at all the stares she was getting. She knew that her tummy was bulging a little bit, but it wasn't much; yet it was enough for everyone else to glare at her.

And as if that wasn't enough, as Frida was looking around at all the staring people, she ran into someone walking the opposite direction she was. Frida took a few steps back and looked up at the boy she had run into.

"Sorry," She said. He huffed and she could hear him muttering 'slut' under his breath as he brushed past her. Frida looked to her feet, trying to blink back the tears that were forming. Yet somehow all she heard was all her classmate's mutterings of 'whore' and 'slut'. She felt everyone's eyes glaring at her. And it wasn't helping one bit.

~…~

"Oh, Manny, I'm a terrible person!" Frida cried into Manny's shirt. Manny hugged her closer to him.

"No you're not, Frida, ignore what everyone tells you. It wasn't your fault for getting pregnant, it's mine. You're the smartest, most beautiful, most non-sluttiest person I've ever known, okay?" Manny cooed, thinking of what he had been told earlier as Frida tightened her arms around his waist.

Manny felt an overwhelming sense of anger boiling inside him at the knowledge that there were people making Frida, his Frida, feel bad about herself. How dare they upset her? He thought. How dare they make her think less of herself. She's perfect and they're all just jealous. Why do people have to be so mean? Manny just wanted to take every last one of them and squeeze the life out of them until he heard them apologize to his perfect angel, his everyday sunshine. But he held himself back from it, because he knew that if he did anything Frida wouldn't quite like it. Manny knew she always wanted her chance to stand up for herself.

"Don't ever leave me Manny, please," Frida said, burying her face in his shoulder.

This only brought the earlier conversation at work louder in Manny's head.

**Uh, forgive me for this chapter being so short. I don't mean to make it short, I just put it in for the sake of updating. It's a filler chapter, yes, for the most part. Anyways, review?**


	12. All Work and No Play

As Frida walked through Maria's mansion—still there over the weekend—trying to find her way to the kitchen for some food, when Maria came out from the other room.

"Oh, Frida dear, there you are. I wanted to show you something," Frida stopped walking, shrugged, and followed Maria up the stairs and into her room.

"This is the dress I wore when I got married, Frida, and I would like you to wear it on your wedding day." Maria handed Frida a long white dress from the depths of her closet.

"Uhh, you sure this will fit me when I'm...you know...fat?" Frida asked.

"Oh, it's made of a flexible material designed to fit pregnant brides. It's a maternity dress. It'll fit you no problem!" Maria explained. Frida held it up to her body as to see how it looked on her. Maria explained that when she was proposed to, she was suspecting that she was pregnant and would need just such a dress. Even though she was wrong about being pregnant, she didn't have any money to spare for a new one, so she just wore the one she had.

"Thank you, it's beautiful. It's an honor to wear your dress," Frida smiled.

"Anything for my daughter-to-be," Maria smiled back.

The only reason Frida wasn't buying a wedding dress was because she knew she wouldn't be able to afford it, and she couldn't wear her mother's because first off, she wouldn't fit in it, and even if she could, Carmela had stained it at her wedding reception when she spilled some of her wine. It was a shame, since it was a pretty dress.

~…~

"Well I like the name Damien." Frida insisted. Manny shrugged.

"It's good. But I like Nicolas, too." Frida was silent for a moment.

"But Manny…what if it's a girl?" Frida asked a moment later. Manny waved it off.

"Psh, it has to be a boy! It will be a boy, for sure…" Manny said, sounding uncertain.

Frida shrugged, unsure of Manny's 'certainty'. After all, the odds of it being a boy because of the Rivera side were very high because it was always a boy was nearly equaled by the fact that Frida's parents have only ever conceived girls. Even the miscarriage Carmela had before the twins was a girl, and all Carmela's siblings were girls. There was just as much a chance of a girl as there was a boy.

Only, there was a problem on Manny's side of the story with having a girl. And we all know that problem.

"Anyways, I think we should determine girl and boy names," Frida said. "If it's a boy, how about the name Emilio?" Frida began. "And if it's a girl…her name will be…Lorena. Do you like those names?" Frida explained. Manny was silent in thought for a moment.

"Actually, I like those names." Manny said. Frida smiled.

"Good! I'm glad we settled that, because my dad wanted to meet me for lunch so he can talk to me about something." Frida said, standing and patting Manny's knee as she grabbed her coat.

"What does he want to talk about?" Manny asked protectively as he rose to his feet, knowing the latest history of Frida's and her father's talks.

"Oh, relax Manny, he says he's not arranging for an argument. He says he just wants to talk and he won't freak out on me." Frida explained. Manny sighed.

"If you say so…have fun," Manny said, wrapping his hands around her and pulling her close to him as he kissed the top of her head. Frida smiled, turned to face him and kissed him quick before she left.

Frida met her father at their house and from there they went to a deli for lunch.

"So, dad, what did you want to talk to me about?" Frida asked when they sat down at their outdoor table. They had talked about Frida and Manny's success so far on the walk over, which to Frida's pleasure, was a decent conversation.

Emiliano didn't know how else to start the conversation. "I wanted to meet here today so I could apologize for my behavior lately." He began. "I hadn't realized how my actions had hurt my family until they gave me a reality check." Emiliano explained. Frida smiled.

"It's just, you're my little girl and I hate to see you growing up so quickly." Emiliano admitted finally, ending his explanation. Frida smiled.

"Aww, dad, I'll always be your little girl. But growing up is part of life. And face it, Nita and Ani don't really have a future with kids." Frida teased. Emiliano smiled and Frida held her arms out in a hug. Emiliano accepted the hug gratefully.

"So, have you and Manny figured out any wedding plans yet?" Emiliano asked, sparking more good conversation so he could catch up on what he had missed.

"No, we've been so busy with our jobs that we've hardly had any time alone together. And I'm actually kind of concerned about that because once the baby comes we won't have any alone time at all. Especially when Manny has to scrape together enough money from his part-time jobs while I stay home with the baby." Frida explained, surfacing her concerns.

"Why don't you both take the day off from work and spend the day together? It'll be beneficial to you both as a stress reliever and a positive direction in your relationship. And even if you don't do that, you can bring the baby to your mother and I any time and we will gladly watch it." Emiliano responded. Frida smiled. He was actually trying very hard to make up for all that he's missed and she was happy for that.

~…~

Having brought up the thought during their lunch, Frida voiced her concern to Manny once she got back.

"Oh, you're back! How was it?" Manny asked. Frida sat on the couch (they were at Manny's dad's by now) next to Manny.

"It was good, actually. He apologized for his behavior and anger towards us and he explained why he had been so angry and he caught up on what we've been doing lately." Frida explained.

"That's good!" Manny said.

"Yeah…but it brought up a good point. We haven't had a day alone together in a long time, Manny," Frida said. "I have the day off Saturday, a-and we can plan the whole day together, because what with work and planning the wedding and the baby, we just won't have any time if we wait any longer," Frida said. Manny kissed her forhead.

"Sounds just fine," Manny said. "I'll take off of my second job on Saturday so that way we'll have the afternoon to ourselves." Manny said sweetly. Frida smiled and snuggled into him.

**Okay, good I finished this chapter! Now I have to go update some other stories…no…time…for small talk…must…update…stories…review!**


	13. Day Off

"Alright, ready for our special day together?" Manny asked as he held everything they needed for the day and stood by the door, waiting for Frida to say yes.

"Sure am! This is going to be so fun!" Frida said excitedly.

"Yeah, and it's a beautiful day, too, which makes our day all the better." Manny agreed. In all honesty, a day off from work to spend together with his girlfriend sounded nice. And not just because of the girlfriend part. Two jobs in one day was _exhausting_. This was a nice break; and he had a full day planned.

They started with lunch in the park. Manny laid out a blanket and their lunch of sandwiches, sodas and Frida's favorite, churros. After having their fill, they laid on their backs and stared at the clouds.

"It looks so peaceful up there all the time. Like, even when there's a raging storm. Somehow it's like they manage to keep peace better than the rest of the world. I wonder how they do that." Frida said.

"I don't know. Maybe by having a bird's eye view of the world they're able to see more about it than we can."

"Well that's not worth looking at if we know that that's what goes on up there…" Frida said. As her hand lay over her stomach, she smiled, grabbed Manny's hand and placed it over her tummy.

"Feel him kicking, Manny," She explained. Manny felt their baby's feet with a smile.

"I love my life," He said quietly as Frida snuggled into him.

~…~

After finishing their park picnic, they gathered their things and took a nice walk through the park.

"What if it is a girl, though, Manny? What will we do then?" Frida asked. She knew there was as good a chance as any for a girl.

"It's not going to be a girl, Frida. The Riveras have been having boys in the bloodline for as long as we've existed. From the first El Tigre to dad, if you look at the history, we're all men, and I don't think that's about to change." Manny explained. He didn't think anything was about to turn out different than it did the other generations, besides the fact that the Rivera woman that created the man wouldn't run away this time.

"Manny, I just think we should be prepared for a girl if we get one. I'm only three, almost four months into this pregnancy and there's no knowing gender or," Frida shivered at the next part, "quantity."

"What?" Manny asked, surprised.

"You heard me. It could be twins, Manny. You know twins are in my family bloodline. Don't be prepared to have one boy when it could be one, maybe even two girls. When we get our first house we should paint the baby's room a mutual color, like blue or green, that doesn't determine boy or girl, and we should set aside some money for an extra set of furniture if it's twins." Frida warned. Manny sighed.

"Alright, if that's what makes you happy then I can arrange that. I'll just have to start working a bit harder…" Frida hugged him.

"Thank you Manny! You'll see, it'll pay off when the baby is born."

After their walk in the park, Manny took Frida bowling, to a movie and to dinner. He figured that they'd better fill up their day well, because they're not going to have another one like it for a very long time.

Which brought the fact that Manny still had mixed feelings about having a baby. While he wasn't exactly considering himself ready, he wasn't exactly considering himself too upset about it.

Manny had been considering their marriage for a long time before the baby. Being together for six or seven years (who could keep track when you love her so much?) kind of does that to you. But having a baby kind of sped up his decision by at least several months of wrestling with himself to buy a wedding ring. And now they were going to be a family…

It worked out differently than other teenage pregnancies, too. No one was really discouraged, let down or disappointed besides Frida's dad at one point, but he was over it now.

~…~

After their day out, Manny and Frida were walking back to Manny's house when they passed a quaint neighborhood made up of small to average sized homes. Out of the corner of her eye, Frida saw a for sale sign on one.

"Wait, Manny, this house is for sale. I kinda wanna check it out." Frida said with a yawn.

"Sure, I guess. It says they have an open house today anyways." Manny said tiredly. They explored the outside of the house and the more she saw, the more Frida absolutely fell in love with it.

"I-it's so cute! So quaint! I wonder what the inside looks like!" Frida said as she approached the front door, which was just a walk up two or three steps and on a front porch that had a perfect view of the street and anything across it; which just so happened to be a small park equipped with a children's playground. The perfect environment for a growing child.

"Manny, I just love it! There's an open house and it says it's still going. Come on, let's check it out!" Frida said, pulling Manny after her towards the front door.

Just a few minutes after eagerly knocking on the door, a middle-aged woman came to the door with a curious expression showing on her face.

"Can I help you?" She asked. The woman tied back her shoulder-length blonde hair and bored into the young couple standing at her front door with her dark blue eyes.

"Yeah, I saw the open house sign on your lawn and I just absolutely love the house. I was just wondering if its not too late to see the inside." Frida explained. Manny stood dormant behind her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder protectively, for a sense of security. If he knew she was safe, he could relax.

"Oh, why sure! No problem! I can give you a personal tour! We were at my parents all day and no one got an actual tour. You're lucky!" She explained. She stepped out of the doorway and let Manny and Frida in. Frida, followed closely behind by Manny, entered the house and looked around curiously. Frida _loved_ it.

The woman led the two down a short hallway and when they emerged they were in a room with couches, a fireplace and a television, filled with paintings and pictures of people Frida was guessing the middle-aged couple knew.

"This is our living room. This is actually the only place where a cable outlet is, so if you don't want your TV there you'd have to call an electrician. But we usually spend most of our free time here reading by the fire, watching movies on Friday nights, or relaxing after a long day of work." She explained. As she led them to the next room, she turned back to Frida and Manny as they walked.

"Is this going to be your first house?" She asked.

"Yeah. First house, first baby, first everything, basically." Frida explained.

"Oh, a young new couple! Not too old, are you?" She said.

"No. We're only nineteen, but we wanted a stable environment for the baby to be born into." Frida explained.

"Oh! Real young then. Well, it's a very good first step to be taking considering your young age. But it's a great house, and I really wish we didn't have to move, but my husband got a job transfer so we've gotta go. I think you'd love the house." She explained. She led them into the kitchen.

The tour continued for another half an hour, the whole time the three of them talking about buying a house, memories of when the woman who owned the house had gotten married, and Manny and Frida explaining their story to her. She absolutely adored the story, too. She thought it was so cute that they had been best friends since kindergarten and that they had made trouble all over the place together, and that they had grown up, fallen in love and started a family; even be it by accident. She was more than ecstatic to sell the house to them.

~…~

After deciding that they would come back with their parents and some financial advice, but assuring the woman that they would definitely love to buy the house, Manny and Frida returned to Manny's living room, settled on the couch with their favorite TV show, and drifted off to sleep, Manny holding Frida tight in his grasp, his arms wrapped around her shoulders, his feet stretched out on the couch, and Frida laying almost on top of him. Rodolfo came across the living room to turn the TV off an hour or two later, catching a glimpse of the sleeping couple and thought about how cute it looked. Everything, it seemed, was working out for everyone.

For now…

**Wellpp, that's it for that chapter, mainly because there's gonna be quite a few interesting things happening next chapter…but no spoilers! Read it to find out. And yeah, ik I took a long time to produce this chapter out of my a…nus. Sorry. You know my usual excuse, right? So review!**


	14. Getting On With Buisness

"Now, now, what's got you two so excited?" Rodolfo asked as he, Maria, Emiliano and Carmela were pulled by their eager children through town.

"We wanna show you something! We think you'll love it as much as we do!" Frida explained. Rodolfo shrugged to the other curious parents and let their children lead the way.

Manny and Frida led them to the house they had looked at the other day, eager to get their parents' approval on it.

"This is the house we want to buy with the money we've earned from work," Manny explained. The four parents observed the outside, intrigued.

"I am impressed, my son. You two picked this out on your own?" Rodolfo asked.

"Yeah, Frida saw it on our way home from our day off yesterday and we love it," Manny explained.

"Well can we take a look inside?" Maria asked delicately.

"Of course! We told the owners we'd be back the next day to show it to our parents so we could be sure we can buy it." Manny explained as Frida knocked on the front door. A moment later, the woman answered with a bright smile.

"Well hello again you two! I see you've brought your parents by to see the house. Come on in, I'll show you around!" She said eagerly. She led in the parents and showed them around, allowing Frida and Manny to talk to her husband about things they should know about the house.

~…~

After a knowledgeable tour for the parents and an informative talk for Manny and Frida, all were convinced that the young couple should buy the house. They knew they should have been taking baby steps **(A/N: No pun intended,) **and buying an apartment, and they had been looking at apartments as well, but they saw the house and they just couldn't let it go.

"Well, mi'jo, I love the house!" Rodolfo said.

"Yes, I think you two would be very happy here." Maria added. "But how are you going to buy this off of the money you made from work?"

"Well we both have two jobs. If that's not enough money then we'll just have to start working harder," Manny explained. Frida elbowed him.

"Not both of us can work forever, Manny," She said.

"I'll get a third job if I have to." Manny insisted. Frida sighed.

"Not to interrupt, but we'd be willing to bargain with you on a good price. We'd love to sell the house to you." The woman said. So they decided to sit down and negotiate, and in a matter of a half an hour, they were down to a good price and signing off the house. **(A/N: I'd detail but idk how to buy a house, so let's just avoid that.) **The four parents combined agreed to put a small share of their paychecks into the house so Manny and Frida didn't have to pay it all off on their small, part-time job's paychecks; even if there was four coming in each week.

The move would take no more than a week or two, giving Manny and Frida a few days to get everything they needed for their new house.

While Rodolfo, Maria, and Frida's parents returned to their different homes, Frida wrapped her arms around Manny and looked back at the house and Manny wrapped his arms around her.

"This is our land now," Frida said, "Our life is really taking off."

~…~

After buying the house, Manny dropped Frida off at her doctor's checkup and then went to work.

As the doctor was rubbing the ultrasound gel over her tummy and studying her ultrasound, Frida tried not to study too many details as she looked at her child. She tried to study the face that was developing, and not the features that defined its gender.

"Oh, I found a little surprise! Oh…there's…" The doctor mumbled to himself. He cleared his throat.

"Um, miss Suarez, would you like to find out the surprise?" He asked.

"No, I want everything to be a mystery right up until they're born." Frida said as he shut off the ultrasound machine.

"Okay, but this is kind of something you might want to know…" He said. Frida shrugged it off as the doctor looked at the three little heads poking up in the ultrasound picture. Sometimes, he thought, surprises aren't so good…

~…~

As Frida walked to work, she was stopped by two boys about her age walking the opposite way: Sergio and Diego.

"Ugh. What do you two losers want?" Frida asked, one hand on her hip and the other over her stomach.

"We have come to woo you one last time," Chipotle explained.

"You know I'll never fall for you dweebs." She said, crossing her arms.

_Remember these tips, you fools. Don't screw it up. Be smooth and tell her how you appreciate her._

"If you just saw the sweeter side of us I'm sure you'd change your mind."

"I love Manny and I love our baby. How hard is it for you nerds to understand that? For goodness sakes, I'm _marrying _him. I thought you'd have given up by now."

"It's never too late to take it back, Frida,"

"Believe me, if either of you ever had a chance with me you'd have had it for now." Frida brushed past them and went on her way to work. The two knew they were in trouble now.

When they returned to Chipotle's secret lair, they caught Zoe talking to someone on the phone and quietly hid behind the door where they wouldn't disturb her or be seen.

"Madre, I am telling you, my plan is fool proof. I will have Manny for myself. And when I do, I'm going to rub it in that little whore's face." And as she hung up, the two walked into the room, curious.

"What's, um, up?" Sergio asked.

"Nothing that concerns you," Zoe explained. "How did it go with Frida?" She asked.

"Not so good," Diego explained nervously.

"You fools! You messed up again, didn't you! I knew I should've never worked with you, our plan will never work! Now I will have to rethink the whole damn plan. You're so stupid, both of you!" Zoe trudged off, smiling evilly.

_The plan is underway, _she thought.

"Something is not right with her. I feel she is plotting to betray us when she has what she wants," Diego said.

"Indeed. We shall keep a close eye out on her from now on."

**Well, for now that's good enough. Review?**


	15. Troubles Ahead

"Alright, we'll go our way and we'll see you in a few hours!" Frida explained once more, separating from Manny, Rodolfo and Emiliano. She, Carmela, Anita, Nikita and Maria found a dress shop where the girls could go looking for dresses to wear for the wedding.

"Hey, mom, am I supposed to be getting this big this early?" Frida asked her mother as they were walking. Frida had a hand over her tummy.

"I must admit, you're getting pretty big, but I'm sure it's normal. You're just not used to being large after you've been so thin for so long. It's just a normal part of having twins first." Carmela said. Frida choked on her spit.

"Twins? I'm sure it's just a single child, mom…" Frida said, her secret fears resurfacing.

"We'll see, I guess."

~…~

"Dad, can I tell you something?" Manny asked.

"Absolutely, mi'jo. What's on your mind?" Rodolfo answered.

"Well, it's just that everything's happening at once. As if getting married and having a baby weren't nerve-racking enough separately, they happened together. AND we bought a house. It's all a lot of pressure. How do I even handle it all?" Manny asked. Rodolfo placed a hand over Manny's shoulder.

"Mi'jo, I know this is a lot to handle all at once but sooner or later it will all tie together and you'll see that it was all worth it. For now, you've just got to keep your head up high and keep it in your mind that it's all going to tie together someday." Rodolfo explained as they looked at tuxes and Rodolfo gave one to Manny to try on.

~…~

"I don't know, it's just hard having a baby, getting married and buying a house all at the same time. It's a lot of pressure, you know?" Frida said as her sisters and her mother tried on dresses for Frida to pick as the bridesmaid's dresses.

"It is a lot to handle for a couple so young, mi'ja, but you two can pull through because I know that Manny will be right by your side through it all. He's strong enough and the two of you can do anything you set your minds to as long as you're doing it together." Carmela offered.

"Mhm. Manny would never give up on anything, no matter how much he hates the task. It's in the Rivera bloodline." Maria added.

"Besides, mi'ja, everything will tie together sooner or later, everything will make sense and you'll realize that it was all worth it." Frida sighed.

"I guess…"

"You also have to remember that there are people out there who want to break you two up for their personal gain and will stop at nothing to get what they want. You two need to stick together and watch each other's backs; especially yours. They could really hurt where it hits, and by that I mean I'd really protect your baby." Carmela warned.

"I know, and I know Manny's strictly watching over me…us…and he would stop at nothing to protect me, and I feel safe…" Frida explained. They further agreed to go back to the dress shopping and find something that they could all agree on for the bridesmaids' dresses.

~…~

Back at the tux shopping, Manny, Rodolfo and Emiliano had picked theirs out and rented them and were bringing them home when Manny got a call on his cellphone.

"Hello, Manuel." A familiar voice answered. "We have recently discovered that your amor Frida has begun to bear your fruits. And we have learned of your engagement. And we are out to…set things right. You see, we don't think you deserve her or her babies. You don't realize her full wonderfulness. So, we're correcting it. We have taken your precious Frida hostage and if you want her to be free, you'd break her heart and call of the marriage and break up with her. Tell her you want nothing to do with her child and never talk to her again. Only then will she be set free to pursue…better men." The voice explained. Manny sneered and growled. There was _no _way he was about to give up his life for some stupid jealous kids' jealousy fantasies.

"Frida's in trouble. I have to go save her," Manny explained quickly as he put his phone away and ran in the direction of Chipotle's lair, by this point not caring what his father or Frida's father did about it.

At Chipotle's lair, Manny had transformed into El Tigre and bust the door down, and was now investigating the seemingly empty inside. They're hiding, Manny thought, those wimps.

"Come out here and show your dirty faces, you wimps!" Manny growled.

"You have to find us first," Chipotle's voice echoed through the lair. Suddenly a light came on to reveal a jail cell door with Frida behind it. Frida's face grew a smile at the sight of Manny.

"Manny, what do they want you to do?" She asked. Manny scoffed at the idea.

"They want me to break up with you. I can imagine who kidnapped you." At the mention of the words, Manny sheathed his claws and clawed at the gate once, which made the bars fall to the ground, making Frida stand back in surprise, and then went to sniff out the rest of the lair. He was following their scent by his tiger-based powers, and he was _angry._

"Stay here, Frida." Manny called over his shoulder before he scoped out the lair.

"Where are you, you cowards! Stop hiding from me!" Manny yelled.

"Good luck finding us, Manuel!" A female voice echoed. Manny knew who it was immediately.

"What, you had to call in a lady's help? You two 'burly men' can't take care of me by yourself?" Manny called out.

"You will never beat us," They called out. Frida placed a hand on Manny's shoulder.

"Manny, maybe we should just leave. They're not really worth it." She suggested calmly.

"No. They need to pay for what they've done. This time they've taken this too far. It's been six, even more, years and they haven't stopped yet. They need to be taught a lesson." Manny said angrily, continuing to search for them.

After searching the old laboratory high and low and seeing no sign of other human life, Manny decided to give up for the day.

"For now, we're done here. But this isn't over. They still need to be taught a lesson," Manny said as he escorted Frida back home, still pretty angry.

"Manny, maybe we should just ignore them. I mean, it's been this long and obviously they're not going to quit. It's nothing, really."

"Not if they're going to continue kidnapping you like this. It can't go on. They've bugged us too long."

Frida knew Manny was angry right now, so she didn't push it by prodding him further. She knew he would cool down in a matter of time.

But that was the thing-it was just a matter of time.

**Well after over 100 plus stories I think I've squeezed too much outta my brain. This is the best I could juice out, so deal. Review?**


	16. Moving Out

"What, what's she doing now?" Chipotle asked as he tried to climb over Sergio to see what he was watching.

"Nothing, she's just reading a dumb book!" Sergio responded, slumping back to the ground.

"We have to make a plan, in case she really does betray us. We have to be prepared." Chipotle suggested.

As the boys planned what they would do, Zoe listened intently. She knew they'd be curious and snoopy, so she knew she'd have to be discreet.

"Those fools think they can stop me," Zoe whispered to herself.

"But they are wrong. They can't stop true love! Nothing can stop true love!" She exclaimed.

"And I will make sure that that always rings true."

~…~

"We need to protect ourselves from her possible plotting against us. We cannot let her stop us from getting our true love!"

"Yes, we cannot risk disappointment any more. There's got to be a way we can separate those two without failure, and I intend to find out what that is. I cannot risk another period of heartbreak." Sergio agreed with Chipotle.

"We need a backup plan…" The two began to think in silence.

"I've got it!" Sergio burst out after a long while.

"Her planned betrayal will be of use to us. Just think about it, Zoe Aves is the kind of person who will do anything to anyone or anything just to get something to go her way. So we'll make her think we have no idea she's going to betray us and when she does, we will have already gotten Frida to ourselves."

"No no no, that'll never work. The best way to deal with Aves is to just give her what she wants. She's too sly to fall for our tricks."

"But that's the cowards way out! We're done hiding from our fears! The time for action is now! We have to take what we want like men and push away anyone who gets in our way." Sergio demanded. Chipotle was silent for a moment in thought.

"…fine. We'll go with our original plan. And when she betrays us we'll already have convinced Frida that she's better off with one of us anyways and we'll have turned Manny against Zoe's temptations." Chipotle explained. Sergio chuckled evilly, excited about their call to action.

**~…~**

Manny and Frida looked through the attic to claim anything that either Rodolfo wasn't using or that already belonged to Manny. They figured they could save some money by reusing things that Manny had used when he was a baby. Sure, maybe the baby wouldn't exactly fit as well as he had, but they needed all the money they could get. Between paying for both their educations, the baby and the house on two part-time jobs each, they had to hold back on the spending. They knew that.

They gathered the last of their stuff in a box and handed it to Rodolfo, who went to pack it into the moving van. Manny wrapped his arm around Frida's shoulders and took one last look around his childhood home. Since the day he was born, he'd been here. Now he was finally getting out…and honestly, he didn't feel one ounce ready for it.

"Well, that's the last of it…" Manny said once they met up with their parents in front of the apartment complex, assuring the movers they could close the truck and meet them at the new house. Manny and Frida turned to their parents waiting outside with them.

"Well, I guess this is it…" Manny said after a quick and awkward silence.

"Thanks, guys, for everything you've done for us. We may have brought this situation on ourselves and we deserve to be dealing with it ourselves because it was started by our irresponsibility, but you guys have been there for us more than we could have even imagined. We are so super thankful," Manny said.

"Yeah. We'll see you at tomorrow's housewarming, right?" Frida continued.

"Of course, mi'ja, we wouldn't miss it for the world." Maria answered. Frida smiled and then Manny and Frida hugged and said their goodbyes with their parents, parting with an 'until tomorrow'.

Manny and Frida then took a seat on their couch, taking in the scenery of their new house.

~…~

So you and your stupid little fiancée have a house now, do you? You two think you're so cozy in that house together, so warm and safe holding your woman and your baby. You two think you've got it all figured out, don't you? But you're not even close.

They don't even realize the consequences their family-orientated actions have on the people around them. They don't even realize how many people look up to Manny as a hero. They don't realize the extremely close relationship he has with Frida, which intend to destroy. They don't realize that there are people out there who want him, who even want Frida for some odd reason, for themselves. They don't realize anything.

I intend to change that. And when I do, they'll be sure as heck sorry they ever intimidated anyone.

Besides, don't I deserve my fair chance here? What have I gotten my whole life, a very brief friendship with the boy I've loved for a long time now just to lose him to some stupid little undeserving whore? What did she ever do better than me to win him over? She came trudging in to that stupid detention session, sits right in between Manny and I and ruins my whole life. Thanks a lot, bitch. We had a nice friendship going until you walked in. I may have been young, but I still knew what I wanted.

Yeah, sure, over the years I should have forgotten about it like most do, but that's just not in mine or my family's nature. We don't forget things that make us angry or things that make us go searching for vendetta. Vendetta is a serious thing for an Aves. Vendetta is when in the deepest, darkest crevice of our body we hate someone and we truly want to make them feel the pain that they have caused us. We want to have them know what it's like to feel the hurt that I felt that day.

And actually, that's exactly what I intend to do with that slut Frida. I thought I had a sweet thing going with my new friend Manny, I thought maybe we'd be friends for a long time. And in comes Suarez and steals that all away. I dump a harmless bucket of paint on her, I play a harmless prank with a harmless little bear and some kick me signs and suddenly I'm the bad guy? This is fair why? Well, all this is going to change. And hopefully, they will have seen nothing coming.

**You know what, I'm done trying to lengthen this chapter. Deal with watcha goottt…review?**


	17. Settling In

Frida awoke to the sunshine pouring into her bedroom and the birds outside singing. She looked around and saw large amounts of unpacked boxes, and next to her laid Manny, still sleeping like a log. She looked over to her alarm clock to discover that it was seven-thirty in the morning.

"Come on, kid, you gotta bear with me. You may wanna wake up now but I sure as hell don't." Frida talked quietly into her belly. She had only awoken so early partly due to another whole living being growing inside her courtesy of her boyfriend and mostly due to the fact that she woke up early for work so often that it was engrained in her daily schedule. _I have to learn to stop doing that…_

Frida groggily shuffled herself over to the kitchen—where still nothing was unpacked—and unpacked herself some eggs to cook up for breakfast. She had the day off today, thankfully, which was a rare occasion. If she got lucky, no one would need to miss work on a day she wasn't working and she wouldn't have to offer to fill it just because they needed the extra cash.

Money, Frida thought. Something we're not getting too much of. Why'd we buy a house again? We love it? Great reason. We're still depending on our parents. If we're lucky enough to keep that up for four more years Manny will be able to find a well-paying job and we'll be able to afford a house, maybe. It's not like I'll be able to go to college any time soon. I'll have to go on maternity leave in a few months anyways, so I won't be able to go anywhere. And after the baby is born, I'm going to be busier than ever, staying up all night for at least the first few months, maybe even years before the kid will be old enough for me to be able to leave him or her with Manny or at a day care while I go to school. We're going to be in debt for a long time, I can feel it now…

Frida thought more about their current financial situation as she flipped her eggs in the frying pan, her other hand resting over her belly. By now she was at least four months along; five after not too long. About two weeks and I'm five months, barely showing, Frida thought. I am getting a little chubby for month four, though…maybe I should ask about that at my doctor's today…

Frida's mind was abuzz with thought most of the time now. There wasn't a moment where she was thinking about their financial problems or whether or not her pregnancy was going well so far, or whether or not they have time to plan their wedding some more…everything; she thought of everything.

Not too much longer Manny, still half-sleeping, dragged himself into the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal, not finding the energy to make eggs or toast even.

"Are you working both jobs today or just one?" Frida asked, after greeting him with a 'good morning' and a quick peck to the lips.

"No, just the restaurant," Manny mumbled with a mouthful of cereal. "Why?"

"Because I was hoping we could do a little more wedding planning this afternoon, after I get out of my doctor's appointment." Frida explained.

"Sure, whatever you want," Manny agreed, plopping his bowl in the sink, then proceeding to prepare for his work day.

~…~

After Manny had left for work and Frida had gotten ready for the week, she headed over to her doctor's office for her appointment.

"Hey, doc, I have a quick question," Frida asked as he was preparing the ultrasound gel.

"Shoot," He responded.

"Is it normal that I'm growing this quickly? It's only four months, I'm not really supposed to be showing yet." Frida asked.

"Under your conditions, Miss Suarez, it's perfectly normal." The doctor responded with a smile as he rubbed the gel over her tummy and began the ultrasound. Frida looked away the whole time, reading a magazine as a distraction. But she couldn't help but try to peek over the top of the page to see her baby. But each time she stopped herself before she could see. But each time, she could swear she saw more than one baby. But then again, I didn't catch a good glimpse…I don't know.

Yet another thing that she was left to think about…

As she was walking home, she was startled to see that Zoe had decided to casually walk beside her.

"Aves, we've told you a million times, stop bugging us! We're not going to split." Frida snapped.

"Relax, Suarez, I'm not here to fight you. I was just a little upset that your relationship was moving so quickly…" Zoe chimed.

"What are you talking about? We were dating for at least six years before he decided to knock me up and propose."

"He didn't ever tell you? It only took him like a month or so of you two dating to realize that he wanted to marry you. Don't you think that's taking it a bit too fast? Aren't you concerned?" Zoe tried to hide her smile.

"Well we've been close friends for a long time now; it doesn't really surprise me…" Frida tried to convince herself, but she had to admit, a lot of the time Zoe's words got to her.

"I don't know, I'd think about that if I were you…I mean, after all, you guys are young…" Zoe strolled off in her own direction, leaving Frida to walk home, alone, with one more thing to think about.

Just what I needed…

~…~

"Okay, well, I think we should start by looking for a place to book the wedding and the wedding party. I already called my parents and I know they're available, are yours?"

"Uh, basically, I mean they kinda have nothing to do anymore, without me to occupy their time. Here, let me call them."

The room was silent for a moment as the phone rang on the other end. Manny explained once his father picked up what Frida wanted to do with the rest of their day, to which his parents both happily agreed. They decided that they would meet at their first chapel of choice and follow each other around from there.

The first chapel was an old building that had been around town for at least a hundred years or so. There were large stained-glass windows and old wooden, creaky pews. It was a gorgeous place, plants decorating each and every window and wall, but by the time they got to the price to book a wedding, they knew it was just too expensive.

The next one was nice as well, but it was newer and more expensive. Automatically out.

They went through several more until they got to the last one, which was the place that grandpapi had almost gotten married (twice) and where Rodolfo and Maria were wed—only outside the chapel. (It was cheaper at the time.)

Having no other options, they decided to book there just because the pastor there was still good friends with Rodolfo and Maria (he was a little disappointed to find out that they had split, though.) He was generous enough to give a discount on account of their situation.

Manny and Frida decided that as their way of saying thank you to their parents, they would invite them to their house after the affair for some coffee and if Frida could find the right supplies, a delightful dinner cooked completely on Manny and Frida's combined efforts. (Frida never really learned how to cook a full dinner.) It was the least they could do.

"Oh, Frida dear you don't have to cook dinner for us." Maria insisted.

"Yes, let us cook for you!" Carmela agreed.

"No, no you guys have done more than enough for us so far. You're paying half of our freaking house payments; let us pay you back a little! After all, I cook a mean…taco…I think…" Frida said. Carmela and Maria sat down on the couch and Manny brought the parents their coffee while Frida started to look for a frying pan, a fork and a bowl to mix ingredients, then got cooking.

~…~

After a nice dinner and a nice afternoon together, the parents had to get home to take care of their own duties (after insisting a million times that they help Manny and Frida unpack a little) so Manny and Frida decided to unpack some more and retire to bed; it'd been a long day and they were both tired.

Leaving Frida, of course, to think of the day's events.


	18. Task Four: Worry, Worry, Worry

Frida stood behind the cash register, bored out of her mind. Business was slow today, so not many customers came in during the course of the day. There wasn't anyone else working the registers, either, because they were all on their lunch break. Frida was always the one to volunteer to watch the registers, in case a customer waltzed in. Frida only volunteered because it impressed her boss and the more she impressed her boss, the more chance she had of getting a raise. And she knew she needed that.

Frida, having been thinking a lot lately about everything she's been told lately about being pregnant and engaged at the young age of nineteen, decided to send a quick text to Manny.

_Can we talk when we get home? I've been thinking a lot lately /: _

As a customer came in to order some lunch to take back to his office, Frida put her phone away and took his order, thoughts from yesterday still lingering in her head.

~…~

Manny, having been working since 7 that morning, was on his way to the restaurant for his second job, felt his phone go off in his pocket and checked the message from Frida. Once he read it, it concerned him. What did she mean by 'talk'? The statement made him very nervous.

They had had 'talks' before. Previously, more towards their earlier teen years, whenever Frida said she wanted to 'talk', it meant she had been thinking a lot lately and she wanted to take a break from him. And if that's not what it meant, then it meant that she wanted to get back together with him.

They had gone through a rough patch after Frida's spontaneous kiss atop the mound of bad guys and for the few following years, which meant for Manny that he was thinking about how he felt about his blue-haired friend while taking his chances with Zoe, and one or two other girls after he grew tired of Zoe's complete dependence on him. (Frida had taken her chances with a few guys, too).

Knowing that Frida wanted to talk concerned Manny because he was afraid that what she'd been thinking about lately could lead to trouble. What if she feared the worst was going to happen and she wanted to prevent the heartache? What was she thinking about?

Manny decided that he'd worry about work for now and his home issues after. They needed the money, and he couldn't afford to be distracted while on the job.

~…~

Frida paced her living room impatiently as she waited for Manny to get home from work. No less than fifteen minutes later, he finally did, and Frida immediately walked over to where he was kicking off his shoes and hanging up his coat.

"Manny, do you think any of this will really work?" Frida asked nervously. Manny set his coat down on the bench by their front door, sporting a confused expression on his face.

"What do you mean?" He asked, remembering her earlier text.

"I mean the baby, the wedding, the house, _and_ two jobs. Are you sure we'll be able to handle it all?" She asked. Manny placed his hands on Frida's cheeks and made her look him in the eyes.

"Frida, I love you and I know that no matter how badly things get, I know that we can figure it all out. We can make it work, because we know that we really really want it to work," Manny explained. "You need to tell me that you definitely want this to work out."

Frida was silent for a moment.

"Yes, of course I definitely do…" She answered.

"Then we will make this work, Frida, don't worry. Who made you think that it wouldn't?" Manny asked, dropping his hands to his sides.

"Well, I was walking home from my doctor's appointment yesterday and Zoe started talking to me about everything being so sudden." Frida explained.

"Frida, I know everything that's happened lately was sudden, but you know that neither of us meant for any of it to happen. But we know we love each other and we know that no matter what happens to us, we know we can handle it, together. So ignore what anyone tells you that would bring you down. Okay?"

Once again, Frida was silent for a very brief minute.

"Okay. Thanks Manny, you always know how to make me feel better." Frida wrapped her arms around Manny and buried her head in his chest. Manny ran his hands through her soft hair.

Together, they both knew that they could do anything they set their minds to.

~...~

Having the rest of the night free, the two ate dinner and went to work unpacking their belongings. Frida was unpacking some living room knick-knacks that they had been given by Rodolfo and Maria, while Manny unpacked some stuff for the kitchen. Frida was unpacking a vase when she felt a sharp kick in her tummy. After the short bout of pain, Frida giggled.

"Manny, come here, the baby's kicking." Frida called. Manny rushed over and placed his hand to her belly, feeling the baby's foot coming in contact with Frida's belly. Manny chuckled softly.

"That's my boy, gotten a strong kick already." Manny said proudly, feeling her belly again. Suddenly, as Manny felt one kick, he felt another one almost at the same time.

"Hmm…I could've sworn I felt two feet…" Manny wondered. "Nah, must just be both his feet."

Frida rolled his eyes at her fiancée's ignoring the possibility of twins. She thought she'd felt two also, but she, too, wasn't sure. However, it made her think more than Manny. Manny only expected a boy. Frida knew to expect much more than that. She knew from what her parents had told her that their first child, before Anita and Nikita, was supposed to be a boy, but he miscarried. They tried after the twins, but it came out a girl…Frida. They hadn't had any luck with boys, and just because the Riveras did didn't mean they would.

All Frida cared about, really, was upsetting Manny. He expected a boy, and she expected one or maybe even two girls. Will he still like me if we have a girl and no boys? Will he still love me? Or will he leave to find someone else who can give him a boy? Frida worried. She turned towards the kitchen.

"Manny?" She called out. Manny poked his head out from behind the counter-and-cabinet combo.

"Yeah?"

"Will you still love me if we have a girl instead of a boy?" She asked. Manny was surprised that she'd ask such a ridiculous question.

"Frida, of course not! I love you for you, not for the boy or girl you give me. My life without you would be like…I can barely picture it…it'd be like a flower without water, or sunshine. It'd die off too soon and no one would get to enjoy its beauty anymore." Manny explained, walking over to her and placing his warm, firm hands on her cheeks. Frida placed her hands over top of his and looked into his eyes. She knew he was telling the truth.

"So, you wouldn't leave me?"

"I would never leave you, no matter what happens to us. Whatever does happen, we're in it together. I promise. Better yet, I swear on my life. This, I swear. Okay?" Manny said, looking her straight in the eyes. Frida nodded and smiled.

"Thanks Manny, I knew I could always trust you." Frida said as she buried her head in his chest and wrapped her arms around Manny's waist, Manny wrapping his around her. They held that position for a long time.

"Everything's gonna be okay…" He whispered into her ear, reassuring her that whatever may happen to them, they'd deal with it together, as a team. Just like it's always been, and just like it always will be.

The two went back to unpacking their belongings soon enough, Frida feeling more confident about her relationship.

**Well I think that's good for now, don't you? Psh, took me long enough, ik…don't hurt me *cowers* ….review!**

**P.S.-if you haven't noticed, I'm basing most of this off of what I've read about canon for Manny and Frida, so if you know in detail about canon, you'd know a lot of this chapter already.  
**


	19. Invitations Everywhere

Frida shuffled tiredly through the house, throwing her hat on the couch and herself next to it. She was exhausted from standing behind a register for half a day, then going somewhere else and standing behind a register all day. All she wanted to do was sit down.

Unfortunately for her, Manny walked through the door not too much later and Frida knew she had to relocate to the kitchen table so they could make their wedding invitations.

"Hey, Frida, I have the cards for our invitations, you ready to get to work?" Manny said, placing the blank cards on the table. Frida sighed and stood.

"I'm so tired of standing; can't we do it over here?" She asked.

"I really don't want to make you move, Frida, but we have to do this at the table. We have to have a flat surface to cut and glue on. I've already printed at least one to two hundred copies of the information we're putting on the inside of the cards." Manny explained. "Plus we need to sign our names at the bottom, so we need a flat surface for that."

Frida miserably stood and slowly made her way to the kitchen counter, where Manny had already acquired scissors and glue sticks for the two of them.

So, as they got their scissors and started cutting and gluing, Frida's mind was invaded by thoughts. Worried thoughts, of course.

"Hey Manny?" Frida asked.

"Yes?"

"Are you sure we're making enough money for me to stop working? I'm already six months along and my doctor said I have to stop working in two weeks." She asked.

"Well, yes and no, but we have a good start, and I'm sure if we work extra hard for the next two weeks' pay day will pay off. Look, Frida, if it makes you feel better, this is my last semester of college. I'm already looking for job offers. Soon we'll be on the straight and narrow, okay?" Manny explained. He was attending a two-year community college, but for the career he chose, he only really needed two years of college. Frida nodded, the statement making her feel a little better. She didn't like being helpless; she'd been there, done that, didn't like it, didn't want to go back. Helpless, on the sidelines really wasn't her style. So being incapable of work for at least four months didn't really tickle her.

Frida shrugged it off for the time being, though, and went back to cutting and gluing.

~…~

In the matter of a few days' time, all the invites had reached all the Rivera and Suarez relatives (not that there were really many Rivera relatives at all, besides the ones on Maria's side, which still wasn't many) and Frida was already getting congratulations calls.

"Hello?" Frida greeted the caller.

"Oh hi, Aunt Gloria! Oh, I'm fantastic!"

"Oh, thank you! We're super happy together. No, he's a great guy."

"_Well, I just love the photo of you two that you sent with the invite! You two are just so adorable together! And congratulations on expecting, by the way!"_

"Thank you so much, I can't wait to see you at the wedding! Okay, bye!"

Frida hung up the phone with a smile. Her aunts always knew how to make her smile until once again, the phone rang.

"Oh, hey grandma! I'm so glad to hear from you!"

"Grandpa's going to make it too?"

"No, that's great! I hope it's not too much trouble, it's a bit of a trip…"

"Okay, are you sure you don't want me or mama to pick you up?"

"Alright, well I can't wait to see you there!"

"I'll make sure to pass along the message, then! See you soon grandmami!"

Frida hung up the phone with a chuckle. Frida's grandfather had had knee surgery a couple months back, and it was a three hour drive for them to get to Miracle City. They'd met Manny when they had come up for her quincenera, so they already knew that Manny was a good man.

"Who was that?" Manny asked.

"My grandmami. She says to tell you to treat me right or she's going to give you a whooping just like the super villains do." Frida said, chuckling. Her family was like that, on both sides. Her dad's side, of course, was a rather tough bunch, as seen by Emiliano, but Carmela's side had a bit of a softer approach before they came charging in with the toughness. Manny learned to deal with that a long time ago, though, and he liked her family.

~…~

Later that night, it was time to celebrate Manny's twentieth birthday. They had been planning a subtle party for a few weeks now and they had invited…just a few people…

In all truth to themselves, the party was just their way to unwind and forget about their worries for a night. The party would be alcohol-free, of course, considering that first of all, Frida couldn't have any of it, and second of all, since alcohol and a party had started the whole mess, they were still intimidated by it. They only invited a few good friends this time, to exhibit a sense of growing maturity. They were having a baby; after all, they knew it was time to grow up.

So the guests, a few of Manny's college friends, came pouring into the house, giving Manny a shake of the hand and a 'congrats on the baby and the girl, man,' of their own before going to see who else had shown up at the party.

Well into the party, an unexpected guest showed up. Manny had been having a good time, laughing and playing different games that Manny's friends had brought, so when he answered the door, he was surprised to see Zoe at the door.

And not just the normal black dress, purple and black tights ensemble, either. She was wearing a tight purple tank top and a short, tight black skirt with fishnet stockings and high heels.

"Zoe, what are you doing here?" Manny asked.

"I'm here to help you get a little loose for your birthday," Zoe said, shaking a bottle of wine gently as she held it up.

"No. No way. No alcohol, no exceptions." Manny said strictly.

"Aw, come on, Manny, loosen up. Just because Frida can't have it doesn't mean you can." Zoe said.

"Zoe, I know why you're here, and I really don't appreciate it. Look, we had our go, and now we're over. I'm engaged to Frida, and nothing's going to change that." Manny defended.

"Not even a baby? A little burping, spitting, pooping brat that only causes you trouble? Think about it Manny, it's not really your thing."

"Well it is now. I love Frida and nothing, not even you, is going to change that. Now please get your alcohol out of here, its caused us enough problems already." Manny said, crossing his arms seriously.

Frida, who was looking for Manny to ask him where some more chips were for his friends, found him at the door talking to Zoe and stopped before she made her presence known. She hid behind the corner and listened to their conversation, peering over the corner to see what they were doing when they grew quiet.

Frida heard him say he loves her, but when she saw them, she felt like crying. Zoe had grabbed Manny's shirt by the collar and kissed him. Manny was trying to push her off of him, but she just grabbed his shoulders and kept him close to her.

Manny, in all his Tigre strength, finally managed to throw her off of him.

"ZOE! THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, NOW!" He yelled. Frida just stood there, stunned, tears gathering in her eyes, forming a party of their own.

Manny slammed the door, making the room grow very quiet. Everyone's eyes were on Manny and Frida as Manny turned back to the party and saw Frida teary-eyed.

"Frida, I-I didn't have anything to do with that, she-" He started to explain.

"Save it, I heard you say you love me." Frida said, brushing past him and running out of the house. Manny looked to his party guests for a moment, then turned and ran out the door after Frida.

"Frida! Frida? Where are you! Come on, I didn't kiss her!" Manny called into the streets, hoping to find her.

Manny combed the streets of Miracle City for hours until he finally found Frida in the junkyard, hugging her knees close to her as she sat underneath the control room for the crusher.

"Frida, there you are! I was very, very, very worried! Why did you run out like that? You said you heard me telling her to go home." Frida looked up at him slowly, revealing the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

"I chose you here, Manny, over every other guy I knew. Over not just Silver Wolf, but every arrogant, stuck-up popular hot guy there was. Sure, we dated other people, but really I chose you here. So please, tell me, do you choose me? Or is it her?" Frida said. Manny immediately sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him.

"Frida, you know I need you in my life. I need you more than you would even believe. I don't think I'd even wake up in the morning if I knew I couldn't wake up to your beautiful smile every morning. If I didn't get to look forward to seeing my child when he…or she…is born, then I wouldn't even want to live anymore. Frida, I love you more than the sun loves the earth and more than my dad is was obsessed with my mom," Manny explained. Frida smiled and rested her head on his strong shoulder.

"Thank you, Manny…I-I guess I knew it wasn't you who kissed her, but just seeing that…I don't know, it made me feel like suddenly I wasn't good enough for you anymore…" Frida admitted.

"Come on, Frida, you're more than good enough, you're perfect. You're the more than I could ever ask for. If anyone doesn't deserve here, it's me that doesn't deserve you. Heck, I almost went evil when we were younger. I've got more imperfections than you could ever have." Manny explained.

"Aw, you're not half bad, Manny. I said yes, didn't I?" Frida said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess you did. Now c'mon, I think it's about time we get back home. I know a nice couch and TV movie that would love to spend their night with us," Manny said, standing and holding out his hand for Frida to stand with. Frida found that she needed the support to stand, because she had a hard time on her own.

"I can't even stand on my own anymore…" Frida said quietly as she stood and they walked home.

**Well that was cuddly XD and a bit longer than expected…review?**


	20. Pieces of the Puzzle Coming Together

As Frida straightened off Manny's gown, she looked up at him and smiled.

"You look so handsome in your fancy cap and gown!" She said happily.

"I'm just glad I can be done with school, finally," Manny responded.

"I know. You can finally get a job that pays more than minimum wage…" Frida rejoiced. She had hopes that if he got a good job, they'd be able to afford more and maybe even be able to start paying off their house on their own, instead of relying on their parents. Frida realized they probably should've started out in an apartment to avoid this problem in the first place, but they just couldn't let the house out of their grasp.

"Well we should get going if we want to make it on time," Frida said as they headed downstairs and out the front door.

When they got to the community college, Manny made sure Frida found her seat next to his parents, then found his own on stage, which had been set up in the football field in back of the college.

As he looked out at the audience and the ceremony started, Manny looked out over the crowd. He was finally done. Sure, he only had two years of college on him, but in Miracle City, that could get him just as far as he needed to go. And maybe later in his life, when the baby got old enough, he could go back to school if he wanted to and he could move farther.

Manny saw his mother, and his father, and his grandpapi, then Frida sitting in a row towards the back. He saw them all smiling, overwhelmed with pride for their son/grandson/fiancée, who had finally completed all his schooling. Manny smiled, feeling their pride rubbing off on himself.

The dean had already started calling students up by name to receive their diplomas, and of course, since Manny was towards the end, he got easily bored. He watched a few of his college friends get their diplomas, and clapped for them, but ultimately he was just bored and impatient.

So, after much waiting, the dean rolled around to the R's and Manny paid close attention, waiting intently for his name.

After one or two names, the dean finally called on Manny.

"Manuel…" He started, studying Manny's long name. Manny sighed.

"Just cut to the chase."

"…Rivera." He finished. Manny smiled and stood. He quickly walked up to the podium where the dean stood and smiled as she shook his hand and receive his diploma. He looked out at the crowd, keying out Frida and his parents, and grandpapi. He threw them a thumbs up and an excited smile. He'd finally done it.

I'm finally done with school, he thought. I'm finally an adult, I'm going to have a job, a family and a house. Everything it would take others at least ten years to acquire.

After the ceremony, Manny met his parents, grandpapi and Frida in the large crowd of people.

"Oh, congratulations mi'jo! You have finally graduated!" Maria exclaimed, giving Manny a hug.

"I know, I'm so glad to be done with school!" Manny responded excitedly.

"Ah, but now you have to go job hunting. That is definitely not the fun part, mi'jo." Rodolfo added.

"Yeah, I know, but it'll be worth it to have more money coming in for the baby." Manny said, wrapping his arm around Frida's shoulder and hugging her close to him. Frida smiled.

"Well, what are we all still doing here? Let's go back to our house and celebrate!" Frida said happily.

"Mi'ja, are you sure? We can always celebrate at my house, if it's too much trouble." Maria offered.

"Oh, nonsense! Its Manny's day, I'd be happy to host!" Frida said, waving it off. Maria shrugged and together, Rodolfo, Maria, grandpapi, Frida and Manny went back to Frida and Manny's house to celebrate Manny's graduation.

~…~

The five of them sat in the living room, snacking on cookies that Maria had made and chips that Frida had set out and talking about the wedding.

"So, you two have set an official date and sent out the events! Has anyone called back with RSVPs?" Maria asked happily.

"Yes, I've already gotten calls from my aunt Gloria and my grandmother. Oh, and my cousin called just this morning. And my uncle texted me after he called home when we were at the ceremony. I've been getting calls all week." Frida explained.

"It's still so hard to imagine my little mi'jo is growing up so quickly! This has all happened so fast!" Maria exclaimed. Everyone felt that way, though.

"I know, everything kind of happened at once. We're getting used to it, though, right Frida?" Manny responded. Frida nodded, placing a hand over her belly.

Just then, Frida's parents came through the front door with a bowl of Jello as a treat for the group.

"Manny, congratulations on graduating! We're so proud of you!" Carmela welcomed as she gave Manny and Frida both hugs.

"Oh, dear, you're getting so big! It almost makes me think you're having twins!" Carmela said happily, feeling Frida's tummy for kicks. Frida had done her fair share of that lately, too.

"Oh, don't be silly mother, I'm sure it's just our strong baby boy…" Frida said, not completely believing herself. Carmela shrugged and everyone found their seats once more.

"So, you're all graduated, you're getting married in three months and the baby is due in three months as well! Not too much longer for anything, I see." Carmela said excitedly.

"I know, it's gone by so fast! But I'm still so super excited!" Frida said, continuing the conversation between the women. Rodolfo, grandpapi, Manny and Emiliano had started their own conversation when the girls started girl talking.

~…~

"Zoe! How was last night's encounter?" Chipotle asked excitedly. Zoe growled.

"I don't want to talk about it." She spat.

"Don't tell me it didn't work!" Sergio exclaimed angrily from an opposite end of the room.

"No, they're nearly inseparable! I thought I had Manny…look, I said I don't want to talk about it okay? Leave me alone." Zoe said angrily, trying to escape. Chipotle and Sergio blocked her.

"Not until you tell us what happened." They demanded.

"Fine! I waited until Frida saw us and I kissed him, and Frida ran out of the house upset. That stupid Manny told me to go home and then chased after that stupid whore, Suarez." Zoe explained. "It didn't work."

"Now, now, don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. Frida may have been reassured that Manny cares for her, but it is inevitable. She can hold something against someone for as long as she desires. It'll come up again, and they'll fight about it until it splits them up. Just you wait."

Zoe took in their words, feeling angrier as each one entered her head. She pounded the wall beside her, making a hole in it. The two boys backed up a bit.

"I will have Manny Rivera before he marries Frida Suarez. And I will stop at nothing to get him!" She said, trudging out of the room. They could hear a faint cackle of evil from upstairs, and joined in on the fun themselves.

With Zoe on their side, they knew Manny and Frida's relationship didn't stand a chance.

~…~

The next morning, Manny awoke to the suns shining through the windows onto his side of the bed. He smiled and quickly got up to get ready for a long day of interviews.

He hurried along with his breakfast and hurried his shower along. As he changed into his tux, Frida woke up to get ready for her own jobs.

"Well, don't you look handsome," She smiled, straightening her tie and dusting off his tux jacket. "My little working man." She said, pinching his cheek. Manny chuckled.

"Well, let's just hope a few of them like me." Manny said nervously.

"Oh, nonsense, Manny! You're going to make a great employee for someone." Frida assured him. Manny shrugged.

"Here's hoping," Manny said, straightening himself up. He went downstairs, grabbed the briefcase that held everything he needed for his interviews, and with a quick goodbye and good luck from Frida, was on his way.

~…~

Manny had already been to several factories to apply for the position of industrial engineering technician, and several had already said either that they are not looking to hire right now but if they ever are they'd call him or that they would consider calling him, and after a long day of interviews, he headed home.

About a three or four days later, Manny was trudging into his house from a long day of work when he got a phone call. He quickly scrambled for the phone, and upon picking it up, was ecstatic to hear that one of the companies that had interviewed him had called him back saying they'd love to give him the job. They said that quite frankly, having an engineering technician that was also a hero since he was thirteen was the best they could ask for, because he knew how to keep track of people already.

"Oh, thank you sir! I'll report for work first thing tomorrow morning. Yes. Thank you so much. Bye." Manny hung up the phone, containing his excitement as he searched the house for Frida.

"Frida! I got a job!" Manny yelled up the stairs. Frida, who had gotten home not too much before Manny, had been upstairs changing out of her work clothes when she heard the news. She rushed down stairs excitedly.

"You did? Oh congratulations Manny! This is so great! Oh, we're going to get more money! What's your salary?" Frida asked.

"$49,233 _a year_." Manny said happily.

"Manny! That's awesome! With that we may be able to start paying off our house on our own!" Frida exclaimed excitedly.

"I know! This is so great! It looks like our life is straightening itself out slowly, bit by bit," Manny said.

"And hey, my doctor told me that after the baby is maybe 1 and a half or 2 I can go back to work." Frida explained.

"Well what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. The only thing I can think of that I could devote the rest of my life to is my band. And we could always have rehearsals once a week so our first concert can be once the baby is old enough. I'm thinking of calling the girls to get the band back together…" Frida explained.

"Hey, that's great. I'm really proud of you for that. I will support you in anything you do, I promise."

Frida smiled and sat down on the couch next to Manny. They looked around their house, Frida's hand on her tummy, proud of everything they had accomplished together. Manny then happily picked up the phone to call his two minimum-wage, part-time jobs to tell them that he had to quit.

**Ahh, we got a lot done this chapter! Well, you'll be glad to know that I have the rest of the story relatively planned out, so If I'm lucky, I'll be able to write up and post a new chapter weekly. So review!**


	21. A Little More Complicated

As Frida got home from work, she checked the time to see that Manny wouldn't be home for another hour or so. She was so used to Manny being home when she got home that she didn't exactly know what to do with herself. But seeing as she'd have all day to do nothing very soon, she figured she'd try and get used to it. She went into the kitchen and decided to make dinner so it would be ready for Manny when he got home from work.

But she found that to her dismay, almost two hours later, Manny was still not home. She tried calling his cell phone, but he wouldn't pick up. He always picked up his phone…

"Where is he?"

_~…~_

Manny had been walking home from a long first day of work when he had caught sight of El Oso robbing another bank. So, of course, naturally he spun his mighty belt buckle and sent out to defeat him.

"Oso! Drop those money bags!" El Tigre demanded.

"El Tigre! Man I haven't seen you in a long time!"

"Yeah, Frida and I have been busy lately. No one's robbed anything in a while." Manny answered casually.

Getting away from the small talk, Oso went back to robbing the bank and Manny went to stop him. The fighting lasted longer than Manny had expected, and taking Oso to jail added to the time. By the time Manny was finally able to get home, he spotted Frida sitting on the couch, bored and angry.

"Frida, I'm so sorry I'm home so late. I was on my way home from work when El Oso was robbing a bank, so I had to stop him, and it took a really long time." Manny explained as he spun his belt buckle once more to turn back to Manny.

"Oso is back? I thought you, your dad and grandpapi defeated all the villains a long time ago." Frida asked curiously.

"We did. Every once and a while one would manage to break out and try and rob something, but the three of us got so bored not being able to stop villains there was always one of us on top of it immediately. But there have been a lot of robberies lately. Just the other day I had to leave my old job at the restaurant early to stop Sartana from stealing some jewel at the museum." Manny explained.

"You think there was a massive jailbreak?" Frida asked, worried.

"I hope not…" Manny said. They were silent for a moment.

"Manny, do you think we'll be able to handle putting villains back in jail on top of everything else?" Frida asked. Manny was about to tell her some encouraging words to make her feel better, but he realized he wasn't sure about that himself.

"I…I don't know. I hope we can...I mean, we don't know anything about a jailbreak yet and I'm sure our parents can help as often as they can." Manny tried to assure her.

"I guess so. Oh, Manny, I hope we can make this work." Frida said. They both sat down on the couch, Manny wincing in pain.

"Oh, gosh, how badly are you hurt?" Frida asked, going to the kitchen to get the first aid kit.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I'm fine." Manny lied.

"Don't play that game with me, Manny, we've done this plenty of times before." Frida said as she sat down beside Manny on the couch.

"Make sure to put your El Tigre clothes in the laundry room, I'm sure they're ripped and stained." Frida said as she rubbed anti-bacterial ointment on a cut on his chin.

"Alright, come on Manny, I know you've got some cuts under that shirt. Come on," Frida said. Manny sighed and removed his shirt and jacket so she could disinfect the cuts on his upper arms and chest area. There weren't many, but Frida always preferred that she clean up his cuts and bruises before they get to be infected or a problem.

After Frida cleaned him up, she gave Manny his shirt back and he warmed up the dinner Frida had made and eaten alone, then sat down on the couch again to tell Frida about his first day of work at the factory, telling her how kind the floor workers treated him and how respectful they were of their new boss. It sounded to her that he really liked his job.

"I'm so glad you're happy with your new job, Manny. I think it warms both our hearts," Frida said, resting her hand over her tummy.

"Ooh, Manny," Frida said suddenly, with a smile. "I think the baby's kicking." Manny quickly felt where Frida's hand had rested. Manny smiled as he felt the strong kick of his child. Since the last time it had happened, Manny realized that the kicks had gotten stronger. It made him proud of his son….at least he hoped it was his son. Since they had thought over the possibilities of what their child would come out as, he realized that the chances may be smaller than that of a boy, but the still possibilities of having a girl were still there. And when it came to having kids, possibilities were stronger than usual.

"Well I gotta turn in for the night. Work starts early," Manny said, kissing Frida's forehead and heading up the stairs to bed. Frida stayed on the couch, watching TV until she knew she had to turn in for the night. Upon landing on a kids network, she had the sudden urge to keep it there and watch it.

"Okay, fine, you win." She said, placing her hand back over her tummy.

~…~

The following morning, Frida had shown Manny off to work, giving him a quick kiss as she watched him walk down the street to the bus stop. She headed in the opposite direction to her own job, suddenly feeling tired of walking. She took a break on a bench and rubbed her ankles, realizing they were swollen. Sighing, she knew she had to get back to work.

She tried to stand, but she found she had a hard time getting up. The only way she was able to get up was when someone saw her struggling and helped her to stand. Thanking him, Frida was on her way to work, realizing that she was getting rather large. By this point she knew she shouldn't be this big, so she knew something had to be up.

Once she got to work, she knew something was up when her boss asked to see her in his office.

"Frida, I've talked to your doctor recently and he recommends that since your position requires you to stand all day that you go on maternity leave a month early, and for now I'll find a position that requires less standing up. I believe you'll be seven months along in about two weeks, correct?"

"Um, yeah, that's correct…" Frida answered.

"Alrighty then, as of two weeks from today you are officially on maternity leave. For now, you can pull up a chair at the drive-thru window, okay?"

Frida nodded and went to work. Just what was up with this kid inside her? She wondered.

~…~

After work, Frida called her doctor to ask about his conversation with her boss.

"Yes, hi, I was calling to ask about your conversation with my boss, and to talk about my maternity leave?" Frida asked once she got her doctor on the phone.

"Oh, Miss Suarez, of course. I was going to talk to you about it at your upcoming appointment. I talked to your boss about your condition and I was going to advise next week that you go on maternity leave a month early. It is important that at this stage in the game, you're not standing up all day." The doctor explained.

"My condition? What, is something wrong?" Frida asked.

"No, no, not at all, according to your last checkup the pregnancy is going very smoothly. But due to the fact that you and your fiancée don't want to know any information about the baby's gender or number, I can't tell you any more about the situation." The doctor explained. Frida nodded.

"Oh…well, thank you." Frida said, hanging up the phone and sitting on the couch, exhausted from working all day.

"The element of surprise is getting harder and harder to keep a surprise…what are you up to in there?" Frida said, placing her hand over her tummy. When she noticed Manny wasn't home yet, she knew crestfallenly that he was out fighting another villain. It also rose fears that criminal activity really was picking up again.

**Wow, I finally got this chapter done! This chapter was kind of a filler...well, it plain was a filler. Next chapter will be more exciting (I hope…) review!**


	22. A Different Perspective

As Zoe lay on her bed in her room, she crossed her arms miserably, remembering the events of the day. She had failed yet another mission to attempt to separate Manny from Frida. As she recalled these events, she remembered several memories from several years ago.

_**~…~**_

_In the Aves lair sat three women, each varying in age. As the two older Aves women sat at a table, discussing future evil plans, a younger one, maybe around the age of three or four, approached them with a drawing she had just doodled of Carmelita pointing a ray gun at a bank while sacks of money hung from their arms. Sure, it was a little too simple to work, but for a four year old, it wasn't bad._

"_Mommy, I have evil plan!" She said with an evil grin as she handed the drawing to her mother. _

"_That's great, Zoe, but mommy and grandma are talking about work. Go play in your room," Carmelita said, waving her daughter off. Zoe went back to her room, ripping up the picture and sulking on her bed, hoping that maybe someday someone would listen. _

_**~…~**_

_About six years later, Zoe watched as her mother and grandmother prepared to rob a museum. _

"_Mom, I want to go too! I think I'm ready to help!" _

"_This is a job for the adults, Zoe, you are but a child." Carmelita said, brushing Zoe away. _

"_But mother! I've been training all month and I've gotten better! Give me a chance!"_

"_When you're older, Zoe, this is adult business. Now shoo, we have work to do." Carmelita said as her and grandmami took to the skies. _

"_Stupid mother…they'd have a better chance at succeeding if they let me help. Stupid Rivera stops them every time…" Zoe muttered angrily as she shot her ray gun at the wall, creating a hole. _

~…~

Zoe then recalled one of her favorite memories…introducing the only person who ever cared to her life.

**Flashbackk!**

_A five year old Zoe had just been dropped off for her first day of kindergarten, and as she looked around at her class, she tried approaching a few kids to make friends._

_Every time she tried being friendly, however, they just brushed her off their shoulder like a crumb or told her to go away. Zoe eventually gave up and stayed in the dark corner, where no one would bother to see or pay attention to her. _

_She looked over her class, seeing that everyone was happy and everyone had a friend of their own to keep them company. Everyone else seemed to be so happy…so why can't I be happy? _

_Zoe then caught sight of a boy being hurried through the door by a familiar older gentleman in a white coat and black pants. They looked hurried—probably because they were late. The older gentleman looked like a mess, so the situation seemed puzzling, but not to Zoe. She was focused on the little boy he was pushing through the door and saying goodbye to. _

_Once his father left, the boy seemed uninterested in the other kids. He managed to steer clear of them, despite his exciting entrance. _

_As he found his way over to the toys that were sitting near Zoe, he spotted her sitting in the corner nearby and gave her a smile._

"_Are you okay? My mommy says that everyone deserves to be happy, no matter who they are." The boy explained. Zoe smiled. _

"_My name is Manny, what's yours?" _

"_Zoe." She explained, a smile spreading across her cheeks. As Zoe picked up a toy and began to play with Manny, a passing group of kids saw the two playing together and laughed at Zoe._

"_Hey look, weird girl has a weird friend now." They teased. Manny stood._

"_Hey, that's not nice. Zoe is a nice person, unlike you." _

"_Yeah, sure." They laughed._

"_That's not nice. I think you should apologize," Manny said. _

"_To her? No thanks," _

"_Apologize." Manny demanded._

"_I said no!" The girl said, suddenly pushing Manny. Manny got angry, then proceeding to push her to the ground. _

_Once she started crying, the teacher caught sight of Manny and sent him to detention._

"_Thank you for standing up for me," Zoe said._

"_You're welcome. Daddy says heroes always stand up for others, no matter who they are." Manny explained as he went off to the detention table in an isolated section of the room._

_Much to Zoe's dismay, she caught sight of him sitting down next to a blue-haired girl and smiling. When she tried to talk to him later, he would give her a smile and a hello, but then turn back to the blue-haired girl and focus all his attention on her. After this happened several times, Zoe gave up._

**Flashback endd.**

Zoe, remembering that day, clenced her fists and punched the wall, leaving a small hole. She still hated that wretched gang of girls that had made fun of her that day, who now referred to her as a gothic freak, and she still wanted to inflict as much harm on them as she wished upon Frida. And she still loved Manny for sticking up for her that day. No one else had stuck up for her like that before in her life, not even her own family. She had felt completely ignored until the day she met him.

"All my life, no one has bothered to pay attention to me or be my friend, and once you come along and that blue-haired she-devil stole you away from me! Well, not for long…say goodbye to your precious fiancée…" Zoe muttered. "Soon, Rivera, you will be mine!"

~…~

On the opposite end of town, in the secret abandoned lair of the Chipotles, the younger of them worked on fixing his array of weaponry as he thought of his favorite girl. As his father passed through the lab with a mumbled hello, Chipotle couldn't help but think of the day he met his dear Frida. His father had just gone to jail, and he was left to the care of his grandfather in the meantime. He had begun to feel lonely, and when he saw her Frida one day while his father was being taken away to jail, he absolutely fell in love. She shot him a smile (in his perspective it was friendly, but in her perspective she was giving a polite smile to an adorable little boy. Adorable in a baby kind of way, not an i-like-you kind of way.) Since that day, he'd been bent on separating her from Manny so he could court her. Call it a schoolboy's crush, but it was enough motivation for him.

As for Sergio, it was basically the same situation. The poor boy came to Miracle City feeling completely outcasted in his new middle school, and realized that he was laughed at all around. Little did he know Manny had not intended to humiliate him the day he arrived.

His first day of middle school was also the first time he caught sight of Frida. When Manny had explained that the elementary school was down the road, and everyone laughed, his vision moved left to Frida; his blue-haired beauty. She may have been laughing at him just like everyone else, but he didn't care. She was the most gorgeous creature he had ever seen. And if she was interested in the devil-like boy that sat next to her, then there were a thousand chances for him (or so he thought).

When the two boys met in middle school, they shared their interest in villain-ing and bonded over doing injustices. And later, their interest for Frida.

So obviously, it was easy to see why the three seemed so determined to split Manny and Frida...

**Well, I hope this chapter shed some light on the villains of this story and their motives, because quite obviously their motives go on past just because they want to…especially Zoe. The boys are kind of easy to highlight, and that's why their segments are so short…but anyways, review?**


	23. Boredum For One

As the sun shone through their bedroom window, Frida awoke peacefully and grabbed the bar by her bed to help her get up. Since she grew larger almost every day, she had a harder time getting up every day. Manny would help her, but by this point in time he was nearly out the door for work.

So Frida shuffled herself downstairs to say goodbye to Manny before he went to work, giving him a quick kiss.

"Have a good day," She said.

"I most certainly will. Try not to get too bored," Manny said, referring to today being the first day of Frida's maternity leave.

"I'll try, but no promises." Frida said. Manny chuckled, kissed her forehead and left for work. Frida sighed, placed one hand on her back and one on her tummy, and sat down on the couch, proceeding to watch some TV. Of course, there was nothing interesting to watch, so she got bored very quickly.

After a couple hours of channel surfing and finding few interesting things to watch, Frida gave up and turned off the TV. After a minute of thought, she decided to get ready and visit her parents' house.

~…~

Frida fumbled through the front door of her parents' house to see Carmela cooking up some lunch in the kitchen (it was her day off).

"Oh, Frida, mi'ja, hello! I'm surprised to see you here! What's up?" Carmela said.

"Ugh, I'm so bored! Maternity leave is boring. How did you deal with it?" Frida explained.

"I found ways to pass the time. I mostly worked on case studies at home. It was a bit of a busy time, especially when I had you, since I had the twins to deal with." Carmela explained, placing a bowl of grapes down on the table in front of Frida and sat down across the table from her. Naturally, Frida immediately chowed down on them. She had never-ending hunger, due to the fact that she was feeding for four (although she didn't know that; she just knew she was always very hungry).

"Well you had a steady job when you were pregnant. All I have is part-time minimum wage that I had to quit. I seriously have nothing to do. I can't even help Manny stop banditos!" Frida complained.

"Well, mi'ja, maybe this is a good time to pick up a safe hobby. Knitting or something, perhaps."

"Maybe…I suppose I could work more on my music career. Practice with the band some more…"

"Quietly, you don't want to damage the baby's hearing."

"Oh, right…I can always write some new songs…"

"And play them when? You're going to have your hands full for a long time."

"I know, I know, they're going to build up. Maybe it'll be good for us when the baby is old enough so that I can start booking concerts again."

"Good idea. So, any updates on the wedding?" Carmela asked.

"No, not really. I think all we have left to do is order a wedding cake, which we don't have to do for at least two months, and other last-minute wedding prep stuff." Frida explained.

"Have you gone to get any decorations yet?"

"No, we haven't really had the time lately. Manny's been busy with banditos and work, and I've been busy…doing a whole lot of nothing..." Frida explained.

"Well we could go out on Saturday, if you want to. I'm free that day." Carmela offered.

"Actually, that sounds fun. Oh, as long as it doesn't take too long. My feet really start to ache after spending a while on them." Frida explained.

"The joys of being really pregnant…" Carmela and Frida chuckled at the comment, continuing with their conversation, until a few hours later, Emiliano, Anita and Nikita came home, joining them.

"Mi'ja, how are you?" He greeted, kissing her on the top of her head. Anita and Nikita greeted next, sitting down at the kitchen table between Frida and Carmela.

"Pretty good. Very bored now that I have nothing to do…just decided to stop by for a little visit to occupy my time."

"Consider yourself lucky that you don't have any work to do." The twins complained.

"Oh, yeah, so lucky to be lugging this belly around all the time…"

"Point taken."

~…~

On the other side of town, Manny was busy at work when he heard on the radio playing on the factory floor that the Chipotles were robbing a bank.

"Can't they just give it up?" Manny said with a frustrated sigh, going to find his boss in his office.

"Uhh, I'm really sorry to have to do this, Mr. Garcia, but there's a criminal robbing a bank and I really need to step out to stop them." Manny explained, timidly pushing his head in the doorway of his boss's office.

"Oh, go right ahead Mr. Rivera. I understand you're a busy superhero. I'll send someone to sub for you while you're gone." Mr. Garcia explained, turning his head back to his paperwork.

"Oh…uh, thank you…"

Manny, surprised by his boss's lenient nature, shut the door behind him and rushed out to the bank. He hadn't expected that kind of reaction from his boss. He hadn't expected to have such a job where his coworkers were very understanding of him.

~…~

After work, Manny returned home to see that Frida was just getting home as well.

"Oh, where did you go?" He asked.

"My parents'. I am so bored sitting home alone all day!" Frida explained.

"Oh. I wish I could keep you entertained…but hey, I had the best day at work. I had to leave to stop the Chipotles from robbing a bank, and when I asked my boss to leave, he said it was okay. He said he understands that I'm a hero and I have hero duties to attend to. It's so great, he's so understanding!" Manny explained.

"Hey, that's great! It's great that we have one less thing to worry about. At least you won't constantly be penalized for having to leave work." Frida said, half smiling. The other half was realizing that she missed being told to do stuff. It wasn't very fun, in fact it was tiring when she was a nineteen (going on twenty very soon) year old pregnant girl, but at least it gave her something to do. Being pregnant really put a damper on her fun. Frida thought of all the things she loved to do but now couldn't; helping Manny stop bad guys, practicing with her band (now that she thought of it, with the size of her belly she wouldn't even be able to put the guitar in the spot it was supposed to be to be able to play it correctly), doing dangerous things in general that she usually got a kick out of. There used to be partying, too, but obviously they both stopped that seven months ago.

"I know, I'm so psyched. We're finally going places that we need to go," Manny said, wrapping his arms around Frida's shoulders as the two went to sit on the couch and relax.

**Well, that's good enough for now. Kind of a filler, but there are some bits that are important-ish, maybe…depends on your perspective. I might feel the need to edit this chapter tomorrow. Maybe. Anyways, review? **


	24. Unsure

Frida sighed. She'd been sitting on the same spot on the couch every day for the whole week. She didn't have a thing else in the world to do. She would clean, but her doctor had instructed her to try and stay away from chemical cleaning supplies as much as possible. And she would get a cat to keep her company; except that wasn't a good idea because there were substances in cat litter that she shouldn't be exposed to when pregnant. And then there was the fact that she was huge, and didn't like to walk for long.

She picked up her cell phone, which was sitting next to her on the couch and dialed Manny's work number. After a minute or two, he picked up.

"_Hey Freeds, what's up?"_

"Are you off for lunch yet? I'm super bored!" She explained.

"_I think it's about lunch time. Wanna meet me at Downtown Deli?" _

"I've been ready to go somewhere for a long time now. You wouldn't believe how little there is to do for a pregnant chick. Nothing that my doctor would be willing to let me do, anyways." Frida explained. Manny chuckled, hung up and left for his lunch break.

~…~

After a very awkward bus ride, on which many people couldn't help noticing Frida's abnormally large belly, Frida met Manny at Downtown Deli, and the two ordered some sandwiches.

"So, how's maternity leave so far?" Manny asked as he chowed down on his sandwich.

"Ugh, so boring! I can't do anything! I can't play my guitar very loud, I can't even stand to walk for more than a half an hour, all my friends have college or jobs, and my parents work during the day so I can't visit them till you get home and by then its basically pointless to. I can't even get a cat because my doctor says components in the litter are harmful to the baby. Same thing with cleaning supplies. I can barely clean our house." Frida explained. "All I can do is sit on the couch and watch TV all day."

"Aw, I'm sorry Frida, I wish I could keep you company…" Manny said.

"Well I'd rather you work, so it's okay."

"Yeah, I figured."

"…maybe I should Google fun things for incredibly pregnant women to do…" Frida said, thinking aloud. Manny checked the time.

"Oh, I have to get back to work. Do you want me to walk you home?" Manny explained, realizing a half an hour had passed.

"No, I think I can get home okay. I got here okay, didn't I?" Frida explained. Manny shrugged, kissed her goodbye quickly, and headed home.

Frida sighed as she sat down at the bus stop bench, waiting for the bus to arrive. Her feet ached, as did her back, and she felt completely miserable. Even more than that, they were swamped with bills. They had to pay for the church they had booked the wedding at, bills for all the baby stuff they'd bought, bills for the house, and all on Manny's salary. And for all that, believe you me, that's not enough.

She thought of how long she wouldn't be able to work. It would definitely have to be at least two or three months after the baby is born until she could be able to leave the house to practice with the band, and start booking concerts again (leaving the baby with the parents for the night, of course). How long they'd have to rely on Manny's salary. And their parents'. And she didn't want to have to rely on their parents forever. So she couldn't help but wonder…could they really handle all this?

And Zoe, Chipotle and Sergio's constant putting them down on the subject didn't help. They constantly said "you can't handle a baby, you're only nineteen." Or "How will you take care of a baby? You cause too much trouble." Or "You're too irresponsible to take care of a baby. Why don't you give that baby a better life and put it up for adoption?" Oh, and let's not forget, "Manny probably doesn't even love you for real. I bet he's just saying that for the baby's sake. Why don't you dump him already? I'd treat you much better."

Despite the comments being from three people she should trust least, she couldn't help but take them into consideration. They were only nineteen, and even if they were old enough (which really, 19 or 20 isn't the right age to have a baby), they were far from ready to have a baby. One minute they were irresponsible, happy-go-lucky college freshman who just wanted to have fun before they had to grow up and have a career; the next minute they were getting married and having a baby. They had _a lot _of growing up to do in a very short amount of time. It wasn't very fun, either. They hadn't exactly worried about their financial problems before she got pregnant. College tuition, yes, for Manny, but that was about it.

Frida hadn't even been worrying about college at all. She had taken a semester-long music theory class at the local community college, but luckily for her the class was over with a little while after she got pregnant. She had finished the course in her early stages of pregnancy. At the time before she got pregnant, she'd been working with her band to book some concerts and get her music career going. Obviously those plans had been put on hold until Frida was able to leave the baby alone for a few hours. And that was at least four or five months away, at the very least.

The bus finally reached the stop where she had to get off, so Frida was distracted from her thoughts as she struggled to get up and off the bus (Of course, the other passengers on the bus stared at her quizzically as she struggled, not really bothering to help, which frustrated Frida).

Once she got home from the bus stop, Frida picked up the phone and decided to call her mother. She knew Carmela didn't have any cases today, so she didn't feel that she was distracting her from her work.

After a few rings, Carmela picked up.

"_Carmela Suarez, how may I help you?"'_

"Hey, mom." Frida said casually. Carmela heard the sorrow and doubt in her voice.

"_Is something wrong, Frida?"_ She asked, concerned.

"I don't know, I'm just worried." Frida explained.

"_About what?" _

"About this whole situation. I'm just worried about how we'll be able to pay for the wedding, the baby and the house. Most of the time people don't have to pay for those all at once. And I can't work for another few months." Frida explained.

"_Frida, you know we have your support all the way. So do Manny's parents."_

"I know, I know, and I really appreciate that, but I don't want to have to rely on you guys forever…" Frida explained.

"_Sounds like that's not the only thing bothering you."_

Frida was silent for a moment.

"Alright, so maybe I'm worried that we can't handle having a baby…" Frida explained.

"_Frida! You know that there's not anything you two can't handle. I know you're more than ready for this baby. You two have known each other for seventeen years and for at least three of them you've been dating. You're more than ready. Don't doubt yourself so much, dear." _Carmela explained.

"I know it sounds stupid, but in a way Zoe and her stupid gang were right. Manny and I…we never got the chance to mature, to grow up before we got married and started a family. We're just a couple of immature kids having a kid. Doesn't sound like a good start to a family to me." Frida explained.

"_Frida, honey, don't listen to them. I know everything happened fast, and it seems a little rough right now, but if you just give it some time and care everything will smooth out. I promise. It just takes patience." _Carmela assured her. Frida was silent a moment in thought.

"I don't know…"

"_Well I do. Just give it time, Frida, give it all time." _Carmela explained. _"Look, sweetie, I'd love to chat more, but I have to get back to work. Okay?" _ Carmela said, hanging up. Frida sighed, turning on the TV; completely unaware that across town, Manny had been having the same conversation with his father.

~…~

"Manny, mi'jo, what are you so concerned about? You and Frida may have done things on the rather irresponsible side, but you have more than proved that you are also very responsible. You save the day from villains on almost a daily basis. You would do anything to protect your family and your friends, or anyone important to you for that matter. I think you are more than ready for a child, you just don't realize it yet." Rodolfo explained.

"Are you sure about that?" Manny asked.

He had stopped by his father's house on his way home from work to get some advice about doubts he had been having lately.

"But, weird as it may sound, Zoe and her goony sidekicks were right. We're just a couple of kids in over our heads…"

"Manny, you shouldn't listen to anything they tell you. You're more than able to handle this. I know you can do anything you set your mind to." Rodolfo assured his son.

"I don't know, I'm still not so sure."

"Mi'jo, go home. See Frida. When you see her I know you'll be sure." Rodolfo said. Manny decided that since it was getting a little late, that's what he'd do.

"Alright, well I'm gonna get going. See you later, dad." Manny said as he got off the couch and headed for home, where he curled up next to Frida and spent the rest of the night watching movies and generally relaxing and being lazy. But it was okay, because it turns out Rodolfo may have been right.

**Well, I think that's good for now. Review?**


	25. Free TimeSort Of

"Oh, hey Manny, do you think you could bring me to my doctor's appointment this afternoon? It's a little tedious for a large pregnant woman to ride the bus alone. Not to mention creepy." Frida asked.

"I'm booked solid, but I can take lunch for it." Manny said.

"Are you sure? If you're busy, I can manage." Frida asked.

"No, it's no problem, my boss will understand." Manny said, kissing her forehead before he left for work.

So later that afternoon, Manny took his father's car and drove the two to the doctor's appointment.

As much as they wanted to look at the ultrasound when the doctor had rubbed the jelly on Frida's belly, they knew they wanted a surprise even more, so they looked away to the best of their abilities.

"Well, congrats so far, Miss Suarez. You are a strong eight months along. Your baby is very healthy so far. Would you like to see its ultrasound?" The doctor asked.

"Nope, we still want it to be a complete surprise." Frida responded. The doctor shrugged, turned off the machine and gave Frida a towel to (carefully) wipe off the ultrasound jelly.

"Well, I must say, you two are doing very well at keeping this a surprise. I'm impressed. Most couples can't wait this long." The doctor said with a smile.

"Well we think keeping it a surprise is important. It keeps us prepared for anything, you know?" Manny answered.

They couldn't be less prepared for what would actually come out, though.

~…~

After the doctor's appointment, Manny brought Frida home before returning to work. Frida thanked him for taking time off from work to bring her to her doctor, because she truly did appreciate having a fiancée who was so dedicated to her.

"Hey, Manny, can I ask you something?" She asked before Manny could leave.

"Sure." Manny responded.

"This is going to sound weird, but…well, did you only propose for the baby or for me?" She asked. Manny placed his bag by his feet and placed his hands on either of her cheeks.

"Frida, I love _you_. Even if we weren't having this baby I would have proposed. Don't let Zoe and her stupid sidekicks. They're just jealous that they don't have what we have." Manny said, giving her a quick kiss.

"I know, I know, its just that they get to me sometimes, even though I tell myself not to. Sometimes I realize we have our work cut out for us and maybe it's a little more than we can handle…"

"Frida, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know that's enough to make it work." Manny said. He gave her a quick kiss before heading back to work, leaving Frida home to go through her usual routine.

As she was going around the house, cleaning whatever needed cleaning, however, she turned on the TV in the living room and listened to the news report. As she was listening, she heard Chipotle and Senor Sinestro's names come up. She set down her duster and went to the living room to watch the news.

"_This is the umpteenth time this duo has attacked the city, as well as the umpteenth time El Tigre or his father has had to stop them. It leads to believe that the two have something planned that's greater than anything our superheroes are prepared for." _The newswoman explained. Frida knew it was just panicking from citizens, and that they probably only wanted to cause stress between her and Manny, but she also couldn't help but join in with the hysteria.

As she watched the news more, she heard the phone ringing and quickly picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hi Benny! How are you?"

"Oh, me? I'm good. Just the usual pregnancy stuff. Getting a little uneventful sitting home alone all day."

"No, Manny got a job not too long after he graduated. Yeah, he'd been setting up interviews for weeks."

"Oh, he works as a manager for factory workers downtown."

"Oh, you are? That's great, we can't wait to see you there! Alright, see you soon, Benny. Bye."

Frida hung up the phone and found the guest list in the kitchen, checking off 'yes' under Manny's cousin Benny's name. Frida had met many of Manny's cousins on Manny occasions over the years, and was close with a lot of them.

With the last guest checked off as attending the wedding, Frida counted the list over once more to total about 200 people attending. And boy, was that _a lot _of people. She was used to large crowds, but that was when she was playing her music. It was easy to get rid of stage fright when you were living your dream. When you were trying to impress 200 people either you or your fiancée were related to and that you'd be seeing for a long time to come, it was a bit more nerve wracking.

After she finished cleaning, Frida decided to rest her swollen, achy feet and watch a little television while she looked at color swatches for the nursery. They'd bought all the furniture and had it delivered to their house, and they'd even assembled it in the room they'd selected as the nursery, but they hadn't gotten time yet to paint the nursery. They had to put newspapers down across the floor, move the furniture away from the walls and cover it, then actually paint it, and move the furniture back. And they definitely didn't have the money to hire professional painters. If they could only find a time when Manny has the day off and Rodolfo, Emiliano, Carmela and Maria all could come over to assist. Not to mention her own inability to stand for more than a half an hour at a time (because she's so large).

But, with luck, they'd be able to get to it tomorrow on Manny's day off. They'd already gotten Rodolfo and Emiliano to come help out with moving furniture, and the three of them alone would be good enough to move all the furniture in the nursery. She wanted Maria and Carmela because their female commentary on what color to paint the room and where to place furniture once they were done.

~…~

The next day, the guys and Frida gathered in the nursery to paint. The boys got to work moving furniture while Frida, Carmela and Maria covered the furniture with old sheets to protect them from dripping paint. After the guys got busy painting and Frida's ankles began to ache, the girls went downstairs to snack on some good snack foods and chat about wedding plans while the guys began the painting process.

"So, mi'jo, how is your new job?" Rodolfo asked. They hadn't gotten many chances to catch up lately, so this was one of their only chances.

"It's more work than I've done in my life, I can tell you that." Manny said.

"Well that's what happens when it all happens at once. As long as you've learned to juggle it all." Rodolfo responded.

Downstairs, the girls were having a similar conversation.

"So, Frida, any pre-wedding jitters yet?" Maria asked.

"A little bit. 200 people are attending the wedding; it makes me a bit nervous." Frida explained.

"Oh, honey, weddings are always nerve-wracking. All that planning, making sure all the guests are accounted for and happy and accommodated. It's a lot of work. But you have a lot of people's help, so don't stress it." Carmela chimed in.

"Yeah, I know. When you guys are right, you're right. I don't know what I'd do without all your help."

"That's what we're here for, dear." Maria said as the three went on to chat some more.

About three hours later, the guys had finished painting and had moved the furniture back, so they all stood back to observe it.

"Well, it looks like a fine baby will be slumbering in this room soon." Rodolfo said as they stood back and studied the final product.

"I think even if we didn't have this excellent room we'd have a 'fine baby', dad." Manny said with a smile as he wrapped his arm around Frida's shoulders and observed their nursery. Soon enough, their wonderful child would sleep away (hopefully) in the bedroom.

**I know, I know, this chapter was more on the boring side. Honestly this is the best I can do for a filler. Next chapter will be like, a thousand times better. I have a bunch more planned for it, promise. This chapter, I just didn't know what to put in. All my ideas are for chapters surrounding this one, and I needed something to fill the gap between eighth and mid-eighth month of Frida's pregnancy. So yeah. That's what that's about. Review?**


	26. Trying To Relax

Frida was relaxing at home, watching some TV when she heard a knock at her door. By now, it was really a challenge to get up, so she had placed a few canes around the house to assist her. Resting her hand atop her belly, she opened the front door to see her grandmother standing there.

"Grandma! Gosh, what are you doing here so early? The wedding's not for at least five weeks!" Frida asked.

"Aw, I thought I'd roll into town a little early. I knew you were getting bored sitting home by yourself all day, so I thought I'd come a little earlier to keep you company. But I'm not going to be a burden, so I made a reservation in a hotel." Frida's grandmother explained.

"Oh, nonsense, we have plenty of room here. You can stay with us." Frida said.

"Oh, no, honey, you have enough on your hands already."

"I promise, it's fine." Frida said, stepping aside to let her grandmother in.

"Oh, my, your new house is wonderful, Frida dear!" She said as she walked inside, suitcase in hand. Frida tried to help her with her bags, but he grandmother wouldn't let her. Frida showed her around the house, then to the guest room to put her stuff down. Then they sat down on the couch to catch up on things.

"So, tell me dear, how is Manny? I heard he has a new job." Frida's grandmother asked.

"Oh, he's doing pretty well. Busy as ever with El Tigre and work, and me, but he's managing. I think he really likes his new job. He's working as a floor manager at a factory downtown and he says everyone there is so nice." Frida explained.

"That's wonderful! And how are you, dear?"

"I can tell you one thing, being pregnant has its downsides. My feet ache like crazy and my back feels like a freaking pretzel." Frida explained. "But hey, all part of the miracle of life…" Frida explained.

"What are you doing about a career?"

"I'm not sure. I want to pick up on my music career again, but I probably won't be able to until the baby's first birthday." Frida explained.

"How far along are you?" Lora, Frida's grandmother, asked.

"Umm, partway through month eight." Frida explained.

"Getting pretty big. Is it twins?"

"We don't know. We're keeping it a surprise."

"Well. I think it's going to be an interesting surprise…so anyways, do you have any pre-wedding jitters yet?"

"Uhh, is the sky blue? Of course, I'm so nervous. I don't even know what it is, I usually don't get stage fright but this wedding is so nerve wracking! All the people watching me and my fiancée tie the knot, and on top of that there's a ton of preparation to do beforehand!"

"Oh, Frida, weddings can be stressful, but in the moment you're on the altar, pledging your undying love to the man you want to spend the rest of your life is…well, it's something different. Special, really. It's a moment you'll never forget." Lora explained.

"So I've been told. I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. But it doesn't help that Zoe and her stupid minion boys are constantly trying to break us up. What really worries me is that they haven't been doing anything lately. What if they try and do something to ruin the wedding?" Frida explained, spilling out her troubles.

"Honey, you're marrying a guy who stops crime on a daily basis. Not to mention his father and his grandfather too. I think you're more than safe." Lora said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess…I still worry though."

"Oh, we all worry about things, Frida. We just have to find a way to relieve our stress. Now, I know your aunt Phoebe is free today, why don't we go out for lunch?"

"Sounds terrific! Let's go!" Frida said, grabbing her cane and standing up. The two left to pick up Frida's aunt Phoebe, which was Lora's youngest daughter. (Lora was Carmela's mother, therefore Phoebe was Carmela's sister). It was about time for Carmela's lunch break, so the four of them met downtown for lunch; and so they could catch up with each other. While at lunch, the four caught up on the latest news, including wedding updates, pregnancy updates, and more.

~…~

On the other side of town, in an abandoned warehouse, two boys stood watching their female ally pacing the floor, a pensive look to her face.

"What is our next move? We need to think of something that will separate them for good." Chipotle said.

"We haven't done any good to make them doubt each other. No matter what we do they always bounce back." Sergio added.

"Shut up! I know our plans haven't worked, you imbeciles! You're only making this worse!" Zoe exclaimed angrily.

"Well what do you want to do next? You're the planning genius here, apparently…" Chipotle responded.

"What we need to do is wait. We need to wait for their wedding to arrive. Chances are they're stressed out enough about getting married, and us not striking against them in a long time will make them even more worried. More stress means more fighting. More fighting means better chance they will separate." Zoe explained, her excitement evident in her voice.

"Then, once they're really tense and in their wedding, we strike. We break through the doors and start shooting everywhere with laser blasters and destroying the day altogether. It's guaranteed to work."

"So, what we just wait five weeks for their wedding? What are we going to do with ourselves?" Chipotle asked.

"We can't loot, pillage or destroy or even attack anything. Even if it's unrelated to Manny and Frida. No crimes until we strike on their wedding. Kapeesh?" Zoe explained.

"Are you kidding? No pillaging? That's impossible! We're super villains, that's what we do! We can't just not do that for five weeks." Sergio complained.

"Shut up! I don't care! Don't do any villain stuff for five weeks, that's the end of that!" Zoe yelled. The boys took a step back, silently agreeing to her terms before she started hurting them. It wouldn't be easy, but the results in the long run would pay off, so they knew they had to try their best to not loot or pillage or steal anything.

Oh, boy, would this be fun.

**I'll be honest, I had a writer's block for this chapter. I only had a few ideas for it, and I didn't really know how to lengthen this chapter. I don't want to reveal too much action too soon. So bear with me here, I know this chapter wasn't super interesting really. Reivew?**


	27. Appreciate All We Have

Frida woke up to the usual sunny day she encountered every morning-peacefully and happily. She went through her usual routine of cleaning what needed to be cleaned, eating breakfast and lazing around for a short while. It wasn't until she sat down to watch a little television when she realized her cousins were coming into town today all the way from New York. But more importantly, they had a rehearsal dinner for the wedding tonight. Which marked two weeks to the wedding. And of course, that stirred her nerves pretty well.

So Frida rustled out of bed and took a quick shower and headed to the bus stop so she could go meet her cousins at the airport. Everyone else lived within an hour or two of Miracle City, so it wasn't a big deal to see them. She saw them a lot. Her cousins, however, she didn't get to see very often. The last time she'd seen them, she was only a freshman in high school.

As Frida sat down at the bus stop, she pulled out her phone and dialed Manny's work number.

"_Hello?"_

"Hey, Manny, you're going to be done with work in time for the rehearsal dinner tonight right? You didn't forget?"

"_Freeds, I would never forget! Of course. I'm leaving work an hour early so I know I'll be ready. You can count on me, I promise." _

"I know I always can. See you tonight then,"

Frida hung up and stuffed her phone back into her pocket as the bus arrived. Frida climbed aboard, riding it to the airport.

Frida had only been waiting in the airport lobby for about a half an hour before she finally caught sight of her cousins arriving.

"Hey, guys, it's so great to see you again!" Frida exclaimed as she approached them.

"Oh my goodness, is that little Frida?" A tall, stocky young man asked with a smile.

"Believe it or not! Just a little bit bigger is all," Frida said with a smile.

"Aw, heck, Frida, you still look great." He insisted.

"Well, come on, we can all go over to my place and dump your stuff then we can go see my parents. I think my mom will be home soon." Frida said, checking her watch to make sure it was time for her mother to clock out and head home.

"Oh, we're just going to leave our stuff in a hotel room. Save you some hassle, I know you guys must be busy with all this wedding and baby stuff."

"Are you kidding? I sit around the house all day, bored as all holy hell." Frida said as she and her three cousins left the airport and caught the bus back to town.

"So you like working now? That's a new one."

"It beats relying on Manny for our income. I can't do anything with the band until the baby's first birthday, at the least."

"What are you going to do in the meantime?"

"I don't know. I'll find something to do if it kills me. I can't stand being useless all day long, it's killing me."

"I'm sure you'll have your hands full with the kid for a while."

"Yeah, great, I'll be the stereotypical housewife. My favorite…"

"Hey, it's just temporary. A year'll pass before you know it."

"Yeah, I hope so…"

The bus came to a stop and Frida got off with her cousins and they walked down the block to their hotel. After checking in and putting their stuff down in their hotel room, Frida walked them to her parents' house. Carmela had just gotten home when they walked through the front door.

"Hey, mom, Benny, Ash and Erika just got off the plane for the wedding." She called into the house. Carmela came out of the kitchen to the front door where Frida, along with her cousins, were removing their shoes.

"Oh, hey guys! I haven't seen you in at least six years. Why, you've all grown so much! Oh my goodness!" Carmela greeted.

"Oh, us? What about little Frida here? Hey, how far along are you anyways?"

"Nine months yesterday." Frida explained.

"Nine months already. Boy, Frida, just yesterday we were getting the email that you just found out you were pregnant. Gosh, how time goes by."

"Yeah, I need it to go by a little faster. I'm getting tired of my ankles swelling." Frida said as they went to the living room to sit down and catch up on their very different lives.

~…~

Later that day, it was time for the rehearsal dinner. Everyone had made it to the restaurant that was invited to come. Manny had made it from work with no El Tigre distractions and everything was going perfectly. They had come in and sat down and were ready to eat. A few people spoke briefly about the relationship, and it looped around to the parents. All four had collaborated to create one speech, and had unanimously decided to have Rodolfo give it, so long as he didn't tear up like he had at grandpapi's wedding to Sartana.

"Mi'jo, I cannot tell you how proud of you two we are. It takes a lot to grow up this fast, but you two have handled it better than any other young parents would have. And I know I speak for all of us here today when I say you pull it off so well because you love each other so much." Rodolfo announced. Just as he was speaking, there was a commotion outside the window. Manny got up to check it, but when he looked out the window, he was beyond angry.

"Oso is trying to pull off a bank job again…" Manny grumbled as he headed for the door, hands grasping his belt buckle, ready to spin it.

"Oh, mi'jo, don't bother yourself with it. Grandpapi and I will take care of it. Just sit down and relax."

"I can't just ignore it," Manny insisted.

"Please, it's your rehearsal dinner, mi'jo. Sit down and relax, we have this covered."

Manny reluctantly sat down in his seat again and let his father and grandpapi leave to stop Oso. He was far from happy anymore.

"Manny, are you okay?" Frida asked as everyone started eating.

"No. I'm annoyed that my life is all about work and stopping villains. There's no free time for fun and relaxing. Stuff we used to be able to do, like go pull pranks or hang out at parties or waste the day away at the arcade or something." Manny explained.

"Well, first off, the last time we hung out at a party it didn't exactly end well, and second of all, Manny, I don't like it either, but we had to grow up sometime. We're not kids anymore. We have to be grown-ups, we're having a baby. We just have to learn to accept it." Frida said, rubbing her hand across his back in support.

"Yeah, I know, I guess it just hit me how fast everything's been happening." Manny responded.

"Aren't we all…" Frida said with a small sigh, sitting back in her chair as she took her fork in one hand and started eating, and took Manny's hand in the other. As she felt the baby kick, she placed her hand over the spot where she felt the foot kicking her. The two couldn't help but smile as they looked around at their family and themselves and their own growing family. They couldn't ask for anything more.

**So I finally squeezed a chapter outta my head. The next chapter will definitely be the last, though. I might get it posted tomorrow or later this week. So stay tuned. Review?**


	28. Wedding Day Pt1

The day finally arrived—wedding day. Frida had been woken up early by her mother, sisters and grandmother and they had whisked her away to get ready so they could go to the salon to get her hair and nails done for the occasion. They sat down together in the salon as the hairdressers went to work on washing and curling her hair and painting her nails.

"Oh, Frida, you're going to look so beautiful! We're going to make Manny the happiest man in the world!" Carmela exclaimed excitedly.

"Aw, mom, Manny's already the happiest guy in the world. He's told me about a million times in the past two weeks." Frida said with a smile. The whole day had taken her by surprise. She had been woken up and taken away without warning. But she wasn't minding it all that much, so she was okay with it. She was going to marry her best friend today; after all, nothing was going to ruin her day.

"I know, I know, but we're going to make him the happiest all over again!"

Frida chuckled lightly at her mother's enthusiasm as they chatted more in the salon.

On Manny's end, however, it was the complete opposite. He had woken up peacefully and shuffled into the kitchen to pour himself some cereal for breakfast, forgetting that he had had to spend the night at his father's house as part of a wedding tradition in which it was bad luck to see the bride before the ceremony on wedding day. And part of that was not sleeping in the same bed the night before. So he had slept in his childhood bedroom for the night.

As he was hunched over his bowl, eating his cereal, Rodolfo burst into the room happily.

"Mi'jo! There you are! Why aren't you hustling? It's your wedding day, we have a lot of preparations to do!" Rodolfo exclaimed excitedly.

"Dad, no matter what day it is, I will never be a morning person, I promise." Manny said tiredly. "Besides, all I have to do is take a shower and get in my tux. Then head over to the chapel. And the ceremony's not till one. I have plenty of time."

"Yes, but aren't you nervous? It's wedding day! There's always a case of pre-wedding jitters on wedding day." Rodolfo asked.

"Of course I'm nervous, but just not as much. First of all, I'm El Tigre and I can handle anything. Second of all, Frida and I have been best friends since kindergarten. I'm pretty confident we can handle anything." Manny said.

"But secretly, I'm getting more nervous by the hour."

Rodolfo smiled, but kept his 'I knew it's to himself. He sat down across from Manny and patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"Mi'jo, you will do just fine today. There is nothing in the world that could possibly come between you two. Not even Zoe, not even whoever she gets to help her in her evil tasks. I promise."

"You just wanted to hear I'm nervous so you could say that, didn't you?" Manny said with a happy smirk.

"Yeah, kind of."

Manny chuckled at his father's excited antics as he chowed down on another bite of cereal.

~…~

Across town, Zoe, Chipotle and Sergio were already busy plotting their own day. Zoe had had the day planned out for weeks now.

"So, you two will attack during the ceremony, got it?" Zoe said sternly, making sure they understood.

"Yes. But what will you do?"

"I told you, I'm going to go to Manny one last time to try and talk him out of it. If we combine his doubt with your attack there's no way he'll go through with it. He will be mine in no time." Zoe explained, chuckling menacingly. The boys soon joined in, their cackling echoing throughout the abandoned laboratory.

~…~

A few hours passed as the two got ready for the big day separately, with help from their own family members. Manny and Frida were now in separate rooms in the chapel, preparing for the ceremony.

"Oh, you're almost ready to go! This is so exciting!" Rodolfo said as he brushed some specs off of Manny's suit jacket.

"Dad, you're not going to get hysterical again are you?" Manny asked, fighting a smirk. "Because I can't replace you this time like I did at grandpapi's wedding with Sartana."

"No, no no, I will be fine. Just let me enjoy my son's wedding,"

"Yeah yeah, I'm just teasing." Manny said with a smile. Rodolfo gave his son a pat on the shoulder then went to see how things were going for the arriving guests. Manny stood in front of the mirror, brushing off his suit and letting out a long, nervous sigh. Today was the day he would permanently intertwine his life with someone else's. Someone else's that he really cared about. The last thing he wanted was to mess up. And boy, was he nervous.

As Manny was looking into the mirror and straightening himself out, he heard a brief knock on the door, followed by Zoe's entrance.

"What do you want this time?" Manny asked.

"Just a…last call. You can still back out, it's not too late." Zoe explained with an evil smile.

"What are you talking about?" Manny asked.

"You know. The wedding. This relationship, this whole thing. It's not too late."

"Zoe, I've told you a million times and I'll tell you again. I am not backing out of this relationship and nothing and no one is going to make me do or think otherwise. If you've just come to hassle me about it again, then you can just leave." Manny said sternly, pointing towards the door. Zoe grunted, annoyed.

"Fine, fine, I'll go. But don't say I didn't warn you when you realize you're in over your head." Zoe said as she walked out the door.

Manny let out another deep sigh and went to get ready at the altar.

~…~

Over in the bride's waiting room, Maria and Carmela were helping Frida put the finishing touches on her dress (which they had to cut into a shirt and skirt because Frida had gotten so big, but made sure it was as unnoticeable as possible) before the ceremony began. Rodolfo had poked his head in to tell them there was about ten to fifteen minutes until go time, depending on when the last people filed into the chapel.

"I've been preparing for this day for nine months, but now that it's here I-I just can't believe it's actually about to happen…" Frida explained.

"Is that nervousness I hear?" Carmela asked with a smirk.

"What, me? Nervous? No way! I-I'm just saying, nine months passed fast." Frida responded nervously.

"Suure…" Carmela teased as they continued preparing for the start of the ceremony.

~…~

A little bit later, it was time for the ceremony to start. Manny was already standing at the altar, Rodolfo, Maria and grandpapi sitting in the front row. Carmela, along with Anita and Nikita, were sitting on the other side in the front row. Frida stood behind the large double doors, arm twisted around her father's. They were ready to proceed, as soon as their cue came along. Frida let out a deep, nervous sigh.

"Mi'ja, are you alright?" Emiliano asked, noticing her sigh of distress.

"Uhh, to be completely honest, I'm extremely nervous…" Frida said quietly.

"Frida, mi'ja, I know nothing will go wrong. You and Manny are the perfect pair, this day can be no less than perfect." Emiliano said, giving Frida an honest pat on the back.

"You really mean it, dad? You're really happy for us?" Frida asked with a hopeful smile. Rodolfo nodded.

"Why not? He's gonna be around for a long time." Emiliano said, obviously joking around. Frida smiled and nudged him gently. Just then, the music started to play.

"That's our cue…" Frida said quietly and nervously. The doors opened in front of them to reveal a church full of people standing and looking back to see the beautiful young woman dressed in all white, ready to pledge her undying love to the man of her dreams. Frida swallowed nervously as she and Emiliano slowly approached the altar.

When Manny saw her enter the room, it was like someone punched him in the gut and stored his puff of breath in a bottle for him to never get back. She looked as beautiful as he could remember. Frida finally approached the altar and took her place next to Manny, and the priest began the ceremony.

~…~

Zoe, Chipotle and Sergio sat on the roof, peeking through the window at the ceremony. Zoe was watching for just the right moment. Before the ceremony it would be no good; it had to be during.

"…proceed with the final stage of the plan, boys." Zoe said as she stared down at Manny and Frida at the altar. The boys cackled evilly as they broke through the window and into the middle of the ceremony. The guests were quick to cover their heads from the broken glass and run to hide from the boys who were terrorizing the ceremony.

"Oh come on, on wedding day? Don't you freaks have a life?" Manny groaned, annoyed. He was quick to spin his belt buckle and attack, as was grandpapi and Rodolfo. Chipotle and his guacamole monster thrashed around, crashing their giant arms into the walls and knocking them down. Frida, along with Maria, Carmela and Emiliano, directed everyone out of the chapel to safety. Emiliano was extra careful to make sure Frida was out of the building and into a safe place. As much as Frida wanted to help Manny and his family, she knew she would be stopped by several concerned family members.

Manny clawed at Chipotle and Sergio while Rodolfo kicked and punched and grandpapi shot lasers and anything else on his suit.

"Why, Chipotle, why do you have to constantly ruin our lives?" Manny asked.

"Because you don't deserve her! What have you ever done that's so great that makes you think you can be hers and not me?" Chipotle shouted back angrily as he attacked Manny. Rodolfo and grandpapi were busy holding off Senor Sinestro, so it was between Manny and Chipotle by now.

"Because you're a villain and you cause destruction on a daily basis! Because she's not into you! Because I _save _the day on a daily basis, from destruction caused by you two! But most importantly, because you've been hung up on one girl for six years, at least, and you won't quit, and by now she'd rather kill herself than have to be with you! You don't know when to quit! She's engaged, and furthermore, I don't plan on losing her anytime in the foreseeable future! So give up!" Manny shouted back. Chipotle and Sergio both froze. Sergio was beyond angry now.

"You're wrong!" Chipotle said, charging at El Tigre and pinning him to the ground. Manny swallowed nervously as Chipotle pointed his laser-enabled metal robotic hand at him.

**This chapter was getting pretty long, so I'm cutting it in half. Part 2 will be up soon, I promise (sort of)! Review!**


	29. Wedding Day Pt2

"You will die today and I will be the man Frida truly deserves!" Chipotle exclaimed.

"I can't believe you still don't get it!" Manny exclaimed. Chipotle set down his laser-hand.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You don't get it at all! You're too pissed off to pay attention! Frida doesn't want you! She doesn't love you, she never will, and she never did! We're all sick of you and Sergio's, and Zoe's attempts to break us up! Just stop, it's never going to happen! You have to be really stupid not to see that when someone is _engaged_!" Manny ranted, breathing heavily as he had released all his anger.

Chipotle and Sergio stood still in shock. Manny's words had cut through the surface and had gotten to them at last. They set down their weapons. They realized that Manny was right. They had been so obsessed with getting the girl that they hadn't realized they were chasing after a dead end. Even after hearing about her engagement, they were determined to get what they wanted.

"Y-you're right…" Sergio said quietly.

"Of course I am. Look, guys, there's plenty of other girls out there that would be a much better match for you. You just have to look is all, I promise they're there." Manny said. "So long as you just lay off the trying to break us up. Frida is really important to me, and I don't want to lose her."

"Well we're not even your biggest problem. Zoe's the one you should worry about." Sergio explained. Manny glanced over his shoulder to see Zoe charging at him, guns blazing. As she pointed her laser-firing gun at him, Manny pointed it away and tried holding her off.

"Zoe, why are you doing this? Why are you determined to ruin my life? Because I can tell you right now that even if you managed to break me and Frida up, I wouldn't come running into your arms. What would happen is I would be miserable and grumpy the rest of my life because I managed to lose out on the best thing that's ever happened to me. Why can't you realize that?" Manny said.

"Because you're wrong! If you would just give me a chance you'd see how wrong you are! You're so stubborn, you just need to give me a chance!" Zoe yelled.

"Zoe, come on! I don't need to give you a chance because I know who the one for me is! You could find that same thing if you just cared to try!" Manny yelled.

"You're wrong!" Zoe exclaimed. "You're so wrong it's sickening!"

Zoe fired her laser gun at Manny and Manny just managed to avoid it. Zoe tried pinning him to the ground, but once she was successful, Manny just pushed her off angrily.

"Zoe, just give up already. I'm not going to stop fighting until you've been defeated." Manny said.

"I won't stop until you're mine!" Zoe exclaimed. Manny could tell this wasn't just her usual determination anymore; she was starting to lose it. She managed to pin him to the ground in a way that Manny couldn't get free.

"Zoe, you're getting hysterical. You need to calm down before you completely lose your mind." Manny said calmly, attempting to talk her down.

"Shut up, I'm perfectly fine!" Zoe snapped back.

"Please, Zoe, calm down! I will never be with you!"

"Yes you will!"

"I WON'T! I NEVER WILL! NOTHING YOU DO WILL PERSUADE ME TO THINK OTHERWISE SO STOP TRYING!" Manny shouted. Zoe stopped in shock.

"There are other fish in the sea, Zoe. You don't have to be so focused on me. I have Frida, and I wouldn't give her up for anything. And I know that if you cared to look, you'll find someone to care about just as much as you did me your whole life. Al you have to do is start looking."

Instead of responding, Zoe just dropped her laser gun and walked off. Manny let out an exasperated sigh and turned back to Frida. Having heard everything he said, she had a huge smile on her face. Manny took her hands in his and was about to lean in to kiss her, but Rodolfo interfered.

"Save it for the ceremony, you two," He said excitedly, dragging the two back to the chapel-or the rubble that was left of it. The guests all sat down in what was left of their seats and Manny and Frida took to the altar. The priest continued where he had been interrupted in the vows.

As Manny and Frida shared a loving gaze as the priest recited the vows, Frida felt a sudden pain in her tummy. She moved her hand over her tummy with a pained and worried expression on her face.

"Uhh, Manny, I think the baby's coming..." Frida whispered. Manny smiled.

"Of course the baby is coming." He teased as if it were nothing. Then it struck him.

"Wait the baby is coming?" He blurted aloud. The chapel went silent. Frida just nodded, holding her stomach in pain. Manny looked to the priest briefly then quickly to the audience.

"Let's go to the hospital!" Manny exclaimed as he quickly whisked Frida away to the hospital; the wedding crowd followed, led by Maria, Rodolfo and Frida's parents and sisters.

~...~

At the hospital, Manny was rushing Frida through the front doors and to the front desk.

"I need a room, stat! This woman is about to have a baby!" Manny said hurriedly to the lady at the front desk. She was silent a moment in surprise, as El Tigre had randomly burst through the front doors with a pregnant woman.

"Certainly, sir, right away!" She said, grabbing the phone and dialing the number for the speaker.

"We need a wheelchair in the lobby, stat!" She exclaimed. In a matter of a few minutes, a wheelchair was wheeled into the lobby and Frida dropped herself into it.

"Get me to delivery, this hurts like a bitch!" Frida exclaimed, shouting in pain.

"Sir, are you the husband?" One of the doctors asked Manny.

"Yes!"

The doctors, along with Manny and Frida, burst through the double doors and into the delivery room, beginning the whole delivery process.

~…~

Eight and a half hours later, Frida finally pushed the baby out and the doctors took it, immediately cleaning it up. Manny and Frida waited nervously for them to announce its gender, fingers crossed for a boy.

"And…it's a boy!" The doctor exclaimed. Manny and Frida cheered in joy and prepared to hold their newborn baby.

"Alright, time for the follow-up!" The doctor said.

"Wait what? Follow up? What do you mean?" Manny asked.

"What do I mean? You're obviously having twins," The doctor explained.

"Twins? You mean I have to do that all over again?" Frida said, annoyed and in pain. They went through the whole process again; this time it only took about two minutes for the next one. The next one was a girl, with strands of curly blue hair already on hear head.

"A girl!" The doctor exclaimed. Before they handed the baby to the new parents, they prepared for yet another birth.

"Oh, what now?" Frida grunted.

"You won't believe it—triplets!"

"WHAT?"

So, yet another two minutes later, a third baby was born—another boy. After quickly delivering all three placentas, the three babies were cleaned off, lungs cleared of any amniotic fluids or any other liquids that had occupied their lungs, and handed the three to the new parents. They let out a sigh of relief as the babies had stopped coming after three. The babies were placed in their arms and upon seeing all three of their gorgeous little faces, Manny and Frida were overwhelmed with a sense of pride and happiness.

"Aw, Manny, look at them, they're so beautiful!" Frida said happily.

"Who would've thought…triplets. They're so amazing…." Manny said.

Out in the lobby, the parents were waiting anxiously for the delivery to be over with when the doctor came in. He was silent a moment.

"Well…you're all grandparents!" He said happily. The crowd (consisting of Rodolfo, Maria, Carmela, Emiliano, Nikita and Anita), cheered and proceeded to the room where the new family was admiring their addition.

"Oh, there's three of them!" Rodolfo exclaimed once they walked in.

"I know. We were surprised too." Manny said quietly. The group approached the triplets and Frida let them hold them shortly.

"They're so beautiful," Maria said. She spoke for everyone when she said so. "What are their names?"

"The girl's name is Lorena, the boy with the curly dark brown hair is Emilio, and the last one is Antonio," Manny explained.

"They're beautiful names!" Maria responded.

"If you'd told me that this is what I was waiting for for nine months I would've been a lot more enthusiastic about it. This is what we were waiting for." Manny said.

The room went silent for a little while as they all admired the three babies as they slept.

"If we all don't mind, I believe we were in the middle of a wedding…" Emiliano said quietly as he held the boy with curly dark brown hair.

"Oh, that's right! Come on everybody, let's go!"

~…~

The gang of parents, siblings, bride and groom finally got to the church, along with the priest, and with all three babies in their arms, Manny and Frida finished their wedding.

"Manuel...Rivera, do you take Frida Suarez to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," Manny said, as he stared deeply into Frida's eyes while he held Emilio and Antonio. Frida had Lorena.

"And Frida Suarez, do you take Manuel Rivera as your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," Frida responded, looking deeply into Manny's eyes and into the eyes of her babies. That moment that everyone said they were leading up to, that moment where it all became worth it, was finally here. And the two realized just how right everyone was.

**Ahh, well, that's the end of the story! This is just about the longest story I've ever written, and I'm proud of it! It was so fun writing this! I'm sad it's over, I've been working on it so long ): oh well, review!**

**PS-I might fix this chapter up a little tomorrow, but for now I don't have any more time. I just reaaallyyy wanted to post it tonight…**


End file.
